Atlanta Blackstarhttp://atlantablackstar.com
News and Empowering Narratives to Change Our WorldTue, 03 Mar 2015 22:30:56 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Yet Again Kanye West Insists That It’s Classism, Not Racism, At the Core of America’s Problemshttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/yet-kanye-west-insists-classicism-not-racism-core-americas-problems/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/yet-kanye-west-insists-classicism-not-racism-core-americas-problems/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 22:30:56 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232618When Kanye West took to the stage of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on Monday, he gave a speech that covered everything from his own ego to discussing why The Matrix was the best movie of all time. Unfortunately, the hip hop star also served as a prime example of what happens when people believe the success of a handful of Black people equates to equality for the entire community.

According to Mr. West, racism is no longer a problem in America.

As the nation continues chanting “Black lives matter” in the midst of a seemingly unending stream of Black people being killed by law enforcement, as Black communities continue to be plagued with health issues after government funding allows environmentally hazardous projects to ruin the environment around their homes, as Black students struggle to receive the quality education they need because government funding is failing schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods, as the school-to-prison pipeline continues snatching many young Black hopefuls before they even have the chance to graduate, as the Black community bears the brunt of historic wealth inequality, West has deemed racism in America a problem of the past.

Instead, West insisted that the real enemy is classism and the growing divide between the wealthy and poor in America.

“But there’s still something you’re taught every day, especially in the UK, and that’s division by class,” West continued. “Our main focus, in my opinion…Imagine a world with no war, and imagine if everyone’s main focus, more so than going out to a club, their main focus was to help someone else.”

It’s certainly not a new claim from the hip hop star as it’s the type of misleading message that he has been repeating for years.

During an interview on Wild 94.9’s The JV Show in 2013, Kanye shared the same sentiments.

“It’s about class and it was a classist move that even when you get invited to certain dinner parties, or even when you’re in certain magazines, it’s still a Dinner With Schmucks situation,” he said at the time. “Are they inviting you to be a part of what you’re doing or are they inviting you to laugh at your teeth? And ask you a million questions like, ‘Oh, those are cool teeth. What’s that?’ … It’s not about racism anymore. It’s classism. Like Paula Deen, she was old school with it. They like, ‘We don’t do it like that anymore, that’s racist. We classist now.’ “

While nobody would deny the fact that the wealth divide in America is a growing problem, to proclaim racism as an irrelevant issue would not only be ignoring the plight that the Black community faces today but it would also be ignoring the fact that in many ways racism lies at the foundation of America’s growing wealth gap.

The racial wealth inequality gap has been on a steady incline as government policies and systemic racism has kept Black citizens trapped in poverty without any hopes of reaching middle class status, never mind reaching the top 1 percent that the hip hop mogul makes business deals with on a regular basis.

The reality is that many Black stars become disconnected from issues of racism once they attain a certain level of celebrity status.

So while racism may seem to be a problem of the past for the man who has graced many stages for both his music and fashion-related endeavors, members of the Black community, regardless of income, who have not achieved fame at stratospheric levels, are finding it hard to believe that racism isn’t still an issue when they are constantly exposed to it and its consequences.

Murph’s gambling problem prompts a visit to Pittsburgh to seek help from Don on “Pawnsylvania”; Bryan La Croix and Gene Creemers butt heads on “Show Us Your Songs.”

From the unique mind of Nick Kroll comes a new sketch series, Kroll Show, satirizing our television-obsessed culture and the rabid fan base it breeds. Kroll has built a loyal following through his stand-up and roles on shows such as Community, Children’s Hospital and Parks and Rec. His scene-stealing turn on the FX comedy The League playing sardonic dry-witted lawyer Rodney Ruxin proved to be his most popular role to date. On Kroll Show, fans will get the opportunity to watch Nick transform himself into characters as varied as stand-up favorites Bobby Bottleservice and Fabrice Fabrice to half of the power team of “The PubLIZity Girls,” with Jenny Slate. More than just a collection of sketches, KrollShow, is about giving Nick’s fans a chance to see his of-the-moment take on pop culture, sports news, nightclub culture and what defines celebrity with characters and storylines that recur throughout the season.

Kroll Show season 3, episode 8 airs March 3 at 10:30 p.m. EST on Comedy Central.

Ali considers a plea deal, but it incriminates someone else, so the girls try to help her and Mike, as well as themselves. Elsewhere, Spencer unwinds while on a night out in London.

Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret. Gossip thrives amid the Mercedes-Benz, mega mansions, and perfectly manicured hedges in the exclusive town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania. Everyone has something to hide. Based off the book series of the same name, the series follows four estranged best friends Spencer, Hanna, Aria and Emily who are reunited after their best friend and queen bee of the group, Alison, goes missing only to discover they are receiving messages from an anonymous “A” who knows all their secrets.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/pretty-little-liars-season-5-episode-22-plea-not-plea/feed/0The Education Department Did a New Study, and the Results for Black People Are Worse Than You Imaginedhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/the-education-department-did-a-new-study-and-the-results-for-black-people-are-worse-than-you-imagined/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/the-education-department-did-a-new-study-and-the-results-for-black-people-are-worse-than-you-imagined/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:00:30 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232349Video by Press TV
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/the-education-department-did-a-new-study-and-the-results-for-black-people-are-worse-than-you-imagined/feed/0Halle Berry Holding On To Her ‘Passion Project’ To One Day Play Iconic Activist Angela Davis http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/halle-berry-holding-passion-project-one-day-play-iconic-activist-angela-davis/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/halle-berry-holding-passion-project-one-day-play-iconic-activist-angela-davis/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:45:38 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232583It’s been roughly four years since Halle Berry first revealed her desire to play iconic activist Angela Davis but even as she revisits her “passion project” years later, she revealed that she would never move forward with the project without certain conditions being met.

The 48-year-old actress, the only Black woman to receive an Oscar for Best Actress, is hoping to take on the somewhat historical role—as long as the living legend herself would allow it.

“[Davis’ story] has always been a passion of mine,” Berry said in an interview with The Guardian. “She’s just fascinating: the era she lived in, the Black Panthers and all that they stood for, and her connection to it, or not to it. I have a lot of respect for how she lived her life.”

She made it clear, however, that she would never take on the role without Davis’ “blessing.”

Nobody would argue against any claims that the 71-year-old activist’s tale is an interesting one, but it has also been the site of much debate and public discourse.

The controversial icon was perhaps best known for her association with the Black Panther Party and her undying dedication to other civil rights initiatives.

As a part of the Communist Party, however, her important efforts in the push for civil rights were often overlooked by America’s elite.

When Davis taught her first college course at UCLA roughly 45 years ago, her Communist affiliation plagued her time in the classroom.

“Because Davis was a member of the Communist Party, the UC Board of Regents, at the urging of then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, tried to fire her before she even taught her first class,” an article published on the University of California website explained.

Fortunately, Davis had so much support that the governor’s desires to keep her out of the classroom was no match for the public’s desire to get her in.

“But enraged UCLA faculty, staff and students protested in support of Davis, citing academic freedom,” the website continues. “A lawsuit also was later filed in Davis’ defense.”

Those different political affiliations give Davis a unique perspective that Berry has been adamant about portraying since 2011 when she first unveiled the idea to Jet Magazine.

“I’ll probably never get to play it in my life and I am going to be sad until the day I die, but I really want to play Angela Davis badly,” she told Jet. “So badly. I just think she’s fascinating and I think I would love to tell a story from her perspective about that time in our history and what it was all about with the Black Panthers.”

While it may be Berry’s “passion project” social media users haven’t been too keen on the idea of Berry taking on the role.

So far there has not been a massive social media whirlwind condemning the idea or any trending hashtags bashing the potential project, but many users have shared links about the story with simple suggestions that they are far from interested.

“We good,” one user wrote.

Another person responded with a simple, “Nah” and others went with sentiments like, “Yikes.”

A series of other short responses such as “God no,” “Ehh,” “Nope,” “Oh Sis! Sit…,” “Let’s not,” “HELL no” and “#ByeFelicia” have also been posted as responses to the idea.

It’s a sign that while social media may not be too fired up about the idea right now, any signs that the project would actually come to fruition could spark the type of social media outrage that might get Berry dislodged from her own Davis biopic idea—if she were inclined to pay attention to it.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/halle-berry-holding-passion-project-one-day-play-iconic-activist-angela-davis/feed/0Beverly Hall’s Long and Storied Career Sullied At The End By Cheating Scandalhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/beverly-halls-long-and-storied-career-sullied-at-the-end-by-cheating-scandal/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/beverly-halls-long-and-storied-career-sullied-at-the-end-by-cheating-scandal/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:00:54 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232561The clearest indication of how much Beverly Hall’s much-heralded career as an educator was irrevocably stained by what happened at the end is the fact that almost all of the stories written about her passing away yesterday have been primarily about the Atlanta cheating scandal.

Four decades as an educator, rising through the ranks in New York City, one of the toughest and most politically cutthroat school systems in the country, becoming Superintendent of the Year as head of Atlanta schools, and it all gets boiled down to a few paragraphs about a test cheating scandal that continues to hover over Atlanta like a dark cloud.

It is a reality that would cause Hall considerable pain if she were alive to see it. But at the same time, she wouldn’t have been surprised. She understood the media; she knew that it wasn’t personal—that reporters cared most of all about the story.

For most of her career, this worked to her advantage. It was the glowing headlines over the years that helped her rise, from one of nearly 100,000 teachers toiling away in a New York City classroom to become one of the most celebrated superintendents in the country. While she didn’t necessarily court the press as aggressively as many of her colleagues, she didn’t run away from it, either.

She was a proud Jamaican-born woman who still had a hint of a Jamaican accent in her speech, though all the years in New York had almost erased it.

I got to know Hall over the years as an education reporter who seemed to have to cover her wherever I went. We used to laugh about how closely our careers and our geographic moves seemed to parallel one another. When I was a reporter for New York Newsday in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, assigned to cover the Queens schools, Hall became the superintendent of a Queens school district, No. 27, that was always rife with infighting and racial tension. In other words, it was one that always was in the headlines.

When I was promoted to cover the entire school system in the early 1990s, Hall in 1994 was promoted to become deputy chancellor of instruction for the entire school system, the largest in the country. Part of her job was to explain what was happening in the classroom to reporters who didn’t always understand it.

When I moved to Newark, New Jersey, in 1995 to cover education for the Star-Ledger, Hall was appointed as superintendent of Newark schools. When she looked up and saw me for the first time, she could only smirk and shake her head.

Right around the time I left the Star-Ledger in 1999, Hall moved to Atlanta and took over its public school system.

When I called Hall and told her I had moved to Atlanta a decade ago, she laughed out loud in disbelief.

If she got tired of seeing my face, she never told me.

Though I was still working in Atlanta as a journalist, at least this time I didn’t have to cover her—though I did have family members attending Atlanta public schools, as my own children eventually would.

Her claim to fame was creating the circumstances that pushed poor students to succeed. In 2009, the American Association of School Administrators named Hall as National Superintendent of the Year, singling out Atlanta’s “significant gains in student achievement over the past 10 years.” Naturally all of those gains required a heavy focus on tests scores. And that’s what ultimately got her into trouble.

The Atlanta cheating scandal became the worst in the country and immediately placed an ugly mark over every teacher and every student in Atlanta who actually did stellar work.

Investigators reported that cheating took place in 44 schools—nearly half the schools in the system—with nearly 180 educators involved. They slammed Hall with the accusation that her top staff “created a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation.”

The question of how much Hall knew about the cheating was never satisfactorily answered. Many were hoping for the question to be probed thoroughly in her criminal trial. She faced charges that included racketeering, making false statements and theft. She was among more than 30 APS educators who were indicted in March 2013 and was was set to be tried starting last year with 12 other former educators who had not agreed to plea deals. But her attorneys said she was too sick from breast cancer treatments to stand trial.

Yesterday she succumbed to the disease at 68.

All those years of work in innumerable classrooms, laboring away in all those dusky corridors and steamy administrative offices, and it ends like this—with the words “cheating scandal” in the first sentence of her obituaries.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/beverly-halls-long-and-storied-career-sullied-at-the-end-by-cheating-scandal/feed/0The Criminalization Of Non Violent Crimes Has Crippled Society For Too Long; Here’s What Cory Booker Thinks Should Be Done To Fix Ithttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/the-criminalization-of-non-violent-crimes-has-crippled-society-for-too-long-heres-what-cory-booker-thinks-should-be-done-to-fix-it/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/the-criminalization-of-non-violent-crimes-has-crippled-society-for-too-long-heres-what-cory-booker-thinks-should-be-done-to-fix-it/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:17:32 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232353Video by Huff Post Live
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/the-criminalization-of-non-violent-crimes-has-crippled-society-for-too-long-heres-what-cory-booker-thinks-should-be-done-to-fix-it/feed/0Cleveland Mayor Apologizes for ‘Insensitive’ Blaming of Tamir Rice for His Own Death, But Fails to Seek Accountability for The Taking of A Child’s Lifehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/cleveland-mayor-apologizes-insensitive-blaming-tamir-rice-death-fails-seek-accountability-taking-childs-life/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/cleveland-mayor-apologizes-insensitive-blaming-tamir-rice-death-fails-seek-accountability-taking-childs-life/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:00:51 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232556The blunders continue to pile up in the case of Tamir Rice’s death, even months after the biggest blunder of all: the killing of the 12-year-old who was playing with a toy gun in the park. This time, Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson has been moved to apologize for city lawyers callously blaming Rice for his own death.

This comes as President Obama unveiled recommendations from a White House task force that police practices be changed to prevent tragedies like Rice’s Nov. 22 shooting at hands of a rookie Cleveland police officer. Additionally, it said police should rebuild relationships with the communities they are hired to serve and adopt policies to address racial profiling, while easing their approach to protests and collecting more data on shootings and deaths by the police.

“The moment is now for us to make these changes,” Obama said. “We have a great opportunity, coming out of some great conflict and tragedy, to really transform how we think about community-law-enforcement relations so that everybody feels safer and our law enforcement officers feel, rather than being embattled, feel fully supported. We need to seize that opportunity.”

While such changes, if they are even implemented in local departments, eventually could amount to improvements in certain areas, the Black community’s angst will not be lessened until law enforcement who take the lives of unarmed Black males are held accountable.

Justice Department investigations into the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown—unarmed African-American males killed by whites—failed to hold the killers responsible for the deaths.

The disregard for Black lives and the anger and disappointment were heightened when lawyers used dismissive language in federal court filings claiming that Rice, who was shot two seconds after the police arriving at the park, was responsible for his death.

The city’s lawyers, in response to a wrongful death lawsuit file by Rice’s family, argued in the filing that the boy died because of his own actions and not because of police department errors.

“Plaintiffs’ decedent’s injuries, losses, and damages complained of, were directly and proximately caused by the failure of plaintiffs’ decedent to exercise due care to avoid injury,” according to the papers filed by the city’s lawyers.

They added that Tamir’s injuries “were directly and proximately caused by the acts of plaintiffs’ decedent, not this defendant.”

The family’s lawyer, Walter Madison, angrily called the city’s argument “incredulous” and a “poor use of words.”

Mayor Jackson agreed in his apology.

“We used words and phrased things in such a way that was very insensitive,” Jackson said.

“Whatever words you use, the point remains that they are still blaming a child,” Madison said to The New York Times, adding that such an argument reflects the “institutionalized behavior” of the city’s police department, which has been criticized by the Justice Department.

Madison added that the officer who shot the boy, Tim Loehmann, had been allowed to resign from a previous police job after his supervisors determined he was

Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson.

emotionally unfit for the stresses of police work. The Cleveland police have admitted failing to review the officer’s previous personnel file.

“It cannot be the kid’s fault that the city negligently hired the officer without reviewing his personnel file,” Madison said. “It’s not this kid’s fault that (the officer) had emotional instability.”

Obama’s task force, in an interim report of more than 100 pages, offered 63 recommendations, including the creation of a National Crime and Justice Task Force to guide a broad overhaul of the criminal justice system.

“It will be good for police and it will be good for the communities involved, and as a consequence it will be good for the country,” Obama said. “Everybody wants our streets safe, and everybody wants to make sure that laws are applied fairly and equitably.”

Additional recommendations from the panel included that police departments collect and post on their websites information about stops, frisks, summonses, arrests and crimes, broken down by demographics.

It called for less confrontational practices by the police and steps to “minimize the appearance of a military operation” when dealing with large protests, among other changes.

Laurent Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Augustin Katumba Mwanke was a young banker in South Africa when he was persuaded to return home to help rebuild the Democratic Republic of Congo by the new government of Laurent Kabila. A year later he got a call from the president, a fellow Katangan, and was stunned to be appointed governor of an area the size of France, with control over some of the world’s most valuable mineral seams.

This marked the start of his rapid rise to power beside the president, placed at the core of a network of Congolese officials, foreign businessmen and organized criminals plundering the nation’s immense wealth. First, they transferred $5bn of state assets into the pockets of private firms with no benefit to the state. Then after this was exposed, Katumba created a shadow state to steal funds, buy elections and bribe supporters. One witness says Kabila was being handed at least $4m a week in cash-filled suitcases from mining companies.

The victims, of course, are those millions condemned by the “resource curse” to conflict and poverty in a country that remains among the world’s poorest, despite the huge riches beneath their feet. As shown in The Looting Machine, a timely book by author Tom Burgis, similar shadow states are pillaging Africa’s immense wealth, from Angola to Zimbabwe, while corroding its societies. The result is a nation such as Nigeria, one of the world’s major oil producers, generating half as much electricity as North Korea – only enough to power one toaster for every 44 of its citizens.

After nine years reporting on Africa for the Financial Times, Tom Burgis exposes how the extractive industries have turned into a hideous looting machine, the west guilty of complicity in the raping of a continent. As he says, corruption does not end at the borders; kleptocratic regimes use avaricious allies to sell their commodities and stash illicit cash. “Its proponents include some of the world’s biggest companies, among them blue-chip multinationals in which, if you live in the west and have a pension, your money is almost certainly invested.”

Burgis shows how even the World Bank is linked to this looting, although it would have been good to see recognition of the role of aid propping up awful regimes. But the author makes an important case colorfully, convincingly and at times courageously as he confronts some of those involved in the pillaging.

The C.I.A.A. (known as the “C-I-Double A”) ranks as the most prestigious and well-attended basketball tournament for Black colleges, and has been since its inception in 1945-46. But in the last decade, it has little by little floated away from its legacy of supporting member schools and social wonderment into party central. And that’s not cool.

It might sound extreme, but the future of this beloved conference tournament that has produced countless leaders in various industries is troubled. The future of many potential professional athletes could be in doubt if the need for corporate infusion and twerking does not find a middle ground.

Tens of thousands of people flocked into Charlotte last weekend for the CIAA Tournament—and perhaps 90 percent of them did not attend a single basketball game.

But close to 100 percent of the “fans” attended day parties, night parties and after-parties. This is not to say socializing should be minimized. Indeed, the CIAA might be the originator and the perfector of the day-party, those afternoon delights that are just as thumping as one would expect at a party held during traditional evening events.

It is a concept that has caught on nationwide and it can be liberating to enjoy.

But at what price? Meaning, people literally travel for hours to Charlotte to party, which means the essence of the tournament—founded to showcase Black college talent and serve as an opportunity for students and alumni of the participating schools to fellowship—has morphed into a corporate money grab.

Major sponsors and promoters, seeking to take advantage of that trillion dollars in African-American spending power, create events and concerts that add a nice element to the weekend…if it did not take away from the genuine purpose of the occasion.

Many alums who would make the annual trip to Norfolk or Richmond or Raleigh or Winston Salem—other past CIAA Tournament sites—have been priced out by greedy hotels and scared away by young party-goers whose primary focus is to “wild out.”

There was a gentler, warmer time for the CIAA Tournament, and it was not that long ago. During that period, the games were packed and the parties were fun, not potentially dangerous. Mr. CIAA, a gentleman who would parade around the arena in colorful suits, was a form of entertainment. Fashion was a theme, often with women sporting fur coats and men dapper in suits and ties. Not anymore, although Mr. CIAA refuses to be run out.

The box scores from the games do not even post attendance numbers, as box scores are supposed to. Instead, the box score from the men’s championship game read: “Attendance: 0.”

Could that be a way of not disclosing to sponsors how few people actually go to the games?

It also is not cool that CIAA officials had to use the start of the week to distance the tournament from a shooting at a concert featuring rappers T.I. and Young Jeezy and a stabbing at another “CIAA party.”

Derek Ross, a spokesman for the CIAA tournament, said the events where the violence occurred were “unaffiliated with the CIAA. It’s unfortunate, but it’s not a thing we have control over.”

Mr. CIAA has been a fixture at the tournament for decades.

He said tournament leaders try to encourage attendees to go to events sanctioned by the CIAA and have tried to dissuade promoters–sometimes with letters from attorneys–from using the CIAA name on advertisements.

“All of our events–and we tried to communicate with our friends through email blasts and social media–are either positioned at the convention center or other official city locations,” Ross said.

“The people coming for the tournament, for the fellowship, for old friends from school, those things that are going on at Time Warner Arena were fine. There are other entities outside of the CIAA itself that host parties. Those entities, they need to step up their security mechanism for security.”

There is no easy solution to this quagmire. Charlotte signed on to host the tournament for another six years. The CIAA brings in $30 million to the city, including 40,000 hotel rooms, the city’s tourism authority said. That many of those rooms cost upwards of $300 a night in Charlotte speaks to the exorbitant price-gouging that keeps away the retiree on fixed income who used to make the CIAA Tournament an annual experience.

This is a conference of enormous history. The gracious Earl Lloyd, who died last week, was the first Black player to play in an NBA game. He played in the CIAA Tournament for West Virginia State. NBA champion Bobby Dandridge played at Norfolk State in the CIAA. Charles Oakley and Ben Wallace, both from Virginia Union, were at the tournament last week. Hall of Famer Earl “The Pearl” Monroe played at Winston Salem; Detroit Piston “Bad Boy” champion Rick Mahorn played at Hampton in the CIAA; Curly Neal of the Harlem Globetrotters went to Johnson C. Smith; Al Attles from North Carolina A&T coached the Golden State Warriors to the 1975 NBA championship. The list of remarkable, accomplished CIAA products is extensive.

When Norfolk State, Hampton and other schools bolted for the MEAC, the conference was hurt by the talent it lost, but not in its tradition. The CIAA is bigger than any school.

It is a legacy that is beyond reproach in African-American college athletics. It was founded in 1912 as the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. “Colored” was replaced with “Central,” a sign of progress. The focus has to be on preserving this history, and not making it the place to come to party day and night.

By the way, for those who were “at” the CIAA Tournament but not really at the tournament, Livingstone College won the men’s side of the Tournament for the second straight year. Virginia State won the women’s title.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been accused of discriminatory practices by both the city of Miami and the city of Los Angeles after it was revealed that the nation’s largest bank pushed Black and Hispanic borrowers toward risky home loan products. These practices eventually resulted in a “foreclosure wave that hammered property values and city coffers,” The Los Angeles Times reported. The lawsuits also insisted that JPMorgan has a history of discriminatory practices and “has engaged in a continuous pattern and practice of mortgage discrimination” in both of these major cities since 2004. The lawsuit also slammed the bank for refusing to offer mortgage refinance or loan modifications to Black borrowers.

M&T Bank

A lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan in February accused one of the nation’s largest banks, M&T Bank, of racial discrimination and even had secret tapings to back its claims. The lawsuit was filed by the Fair Housing Justice Center in New York that is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. From 2012 to 2014, the Fair Housing Justice Center sent actors of different racial backgrounds to the bank to see if they would qualify for a mortgage. Black, Latino and Asian homebuyers were frequently denied for mortgages although they presented better incomes and credit scores than the white actors. Many of the interactions were secretly taped. The lawsuit also claims that the bank was caught encouraging homebuyers to move to certain neighborhoods based on their race and, in many instances, urging Black homebuyers to avoid moving into neighborhoods that were predominantly white.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/8-major-american-banks-that-got-caught-discriminating-against-black-people/feed/0This Malcolm X Speech Flawlessly Addresses Today’s Police Brutality Climate and Why Democracy Is Hypocrisy http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/this-malcolm-x-speech-flawlessly-addresses-todays-police-brutality-climate-and-why-democracy-is-hypocrisy/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/this-malcolm-x-speech-flawlessly-addresses-todays-police-brutality-climate-and-why-democracy-is-hypocrisy/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:50:11 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=231856Video by Educational Video Group
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/this-malcolm-x-speech-flawlessly-addresses-todays-police-brutality-climate-and-why-democracy-is-hypocrisy/feed/0LA Skid Row Shooting Sparks Even More Doubts About Body Cameras, Police Traininghttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/la-skid-row-shooting-sparks-even-doubts-body-cameras-police-training/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/la-skid-row-shooting-sparks-even-doubts-body-cameras-police-training/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:45:25 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232555More details and different accounts of what happened during a fatal struggle between Los Angeles police officers and a homeless man on Skid Row have started to emerge, but as cell phone videos hit the web and investigations are underway, the public is still eagerly waiting to see the footage captured by police body cameras.

Sunday’s violent incident was captured on multiple cameras including a surveillance camera, cell phone videos and police body cameras. Even then, however, there seems to be confusion over what happened and where exactly things went wrong.

The LAPD officers confronted a homeless man after receiving reports of a robbery, but the altercation quickly turned into a physical altercation and ended with three of the officers fatally shooting the man as he tussled with another officer.

According to Police Chief Charlie Beck, the suspect reached for the rookie officer’s gun, at which point the other officers on the scene fired.

When cell phone footage of the incident was released, online debates immediately sparked about whether or not the use of deadly force was necessary and whether or not the officers were sufficiently trained to deal with the situation.

Los Angeles’s downtrodden Skid Row is the home of many homeless residents, many of whom are mentally ill or battling substance abuse.

Chief Beck insists that most of the officers on the scene had completed rigorous training on how to deal with mentally ill suspects, although the rookie officer whose gun was allegedly up for grabs did not complete that same course.

“The way you have conversations, the way you offer options, the way that you give some space, the body language that you portray, the way that you escalate, all of that is part of the training,” Beck said at a news conference on Monday. “I will make judgment on that when I review the totality of the investigation, but on the face of it, it appears they did try all of that.”

This statement seems to be at the foundation of much public discourse.

At least two of the officers were wearing body cameras, according to reports by NPR, but the public has yet to see those videos.

In the midst of concerns about how policies surrounding body cameras would be used to continue protecting officers rather than help provide thorough accounts of deadly encounters with police, Chief Beck has refused to release the tapes to the public.

“Two of the officers were wearing body cameras—part of a new pilot program in the LAPD’s central city bureaus,” NPR’s Kirk Siegler reported. “However, so far, Chief Beck is refusing to make those videos public.”

Instead, the police chief is hoping the public will simply take his word for what he saw on the videos.

“I’ve reviewed the other videos,” Beck said. “It appears to me the officers acted compassionately up until the time when force was required.”

While Beck and Mayor Eric Garcetti ensure the public that a “full investigation” has been launched into the matter, it’s been far too often that such investigations are shrouded in secrecy and ultimately produce questionable results.

Both the homeless man that was fatally shot and the rookie officer were Black.

The Facebook video of the struggle did reveal the man swinging at four officers before he was brought to the ground.

Two other officers quickly subdued a woman who picked up a dropped baton.

At this point, what exactly happened is still up for debate.

The young officer shouts “he has my gun” before shots can be heard ringing out.

According to reports by the Houston Chronicle, however, the rookie officer may not have been in any imminent danger.

“The weapon of the young officer who yelled ‘he has my gun’ was in a specialized holster with a rotating hood, designed to make it more difficult for someone to take it away, according to pictures provided by the LAPD,” the Houston Chronicle reported.

It was also later revealed that the gun was jammed and would not have fired although it seems unlikely that the rookie officer would have known that during the struggle.

The homeless man’s identity has not been released by investigators but another man, 48-year-old James Attaway, claims the victim’s name was Shawn. Attaway called him “Africa.”

Attaway, who is also homeless, slept near the victim and said they met while talking about religion and God.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/la-skid-row-shooting-sparks-even-doubts-body-cameras-police-training/feed/0Barbados, Other Caribbean States Back Off From Push for Reparationshttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/diplomacy-root-reparations-says-barbados-prime-minister/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/diplomacy-root-reparations-says-barbados-prime-minister/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:00:07 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232527

Prime Minister of Barbados Freundel Stuart

Barbados and other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states will go the route of diplomacy and not protest on the issue of reparations for native genocide and slavery, Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart said during a press conference on the final day of the 26th inter-sessional conference of CARICOM heads of government in Nassau, Bahamas.

Stuart stated that the issue was not going “to be an overnight initiative,” but one in which the entire region was “irrevocably committed.”

“… There is going to be no retreat on the issue of reparations. But the point has to be made that we do not pursue the issue of reparations on the basis of protest; we are pursuing the issue of reparations on the basis of engagement,” he stressed.

Saying that regional leaders would do nothing to undermine the current relations between former slave trading nations by embarking on a confrontational approach, Stuart gave the assurance that leaders would not turn their backs on the history and the legacy which has been bequeathed as a result of slavery and native genocide.

“We contemplate, therefore, as a first measure, having a discussion with designated countries—former slave trading countries—to see what areas of agreement exist and whether there can be an amicable and civilized resolution to our differences,” he explained.

The prime minister made it clear that regional governments were not trying to get sizeable monetary compensation from the former slave trading nations through court action but to remind them of the impact of slavery on persons in the Caribbean.

“There is a legacy with which we are dealing, and what we are trying to sensitize former slave trading nations to is the existence of that legacy and to the connection between that legacy and their actions in the 17th, 18th and part of the 19th century,” he said.

Stuart, who chairs the prime ministerial sub-committee on reparations, stressed that achievements would most likely not be realized in the short-term.

“We have to take the long view on this issue recognizing the legacy that we are fighting did not take shape overnight and, therefore, it is not going to be dismantled overnight, but we have to start somewhere starting with the pursuit of reparatory justice,” he said.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/diplomacy-root-reparations-says-barbados-prime-minister/feed/0Civil Rights Activists Make a Major Push for KKK Leader’s Name to Be Stripped From Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridgehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/civil-rights-activists-make-major-push-kkk-leaders-name-stripped-selmas-edmund-pettus-bridge/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/civil-rights-activists-make-major-push-kkk-leaders-name-stripped-selmas-edmund-pettus-bridge/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 15:15:35 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232468As the nation is in the midst of what many consider to be a new wave of the Civil Rights Movement, activists are pushing for the name of a Ku Klux Klan leader to be removed from the Selma bridge that served as the stage for one of the most memorable marches in American history.

Discussions of racism have been at the focal point of the media’s attention following the string of deaths of unarmed Black citizens, many of whom were killed by police officers.

With the Oscars snub of the Ava DuVernay directed film Selma, the iconic march that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act has been a key part of discussions that recall the history of the Civil Rights Movement and contemplate how much further the Black community still has to go.

Civil rights activists believe now is the time to rename that bridge so it no longer dons the name of Edmund Pettus, a Confederate general and Grand Dragon of Alabama’s Ku Klux Klan chapter.

The petition is less than 5,000 signatures away from its 150,000 signature goal.

The official page for the petition explains that the juxtaposition between the bridge’s name, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and the actual events that took place on the bridge can’t be ignored any longer.

“The bridge was the site of ‘Bloody Sunday.’ On March 7, 1965, hundreds of nonviolent protesters attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery for their right to vote,” the Change.org page for the petition reads. “But as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were met by Alabama state troopers and deputized civilians who were armed with billy clubs, tear gas, and cattle prods and attacked the marchers and drove them back to Brown Chapel Church. How could a landmark that holds so much significance for the civil rights movement be named after a man who not only supported slavery, but held one of the highest positions within the Ku Klux Klan?”

Students UNITE leaders made it clear that they have no intention of erasing history, but also believe that the bridge’s title is celebrating America’s racist past instead of commending the peaceful protesters who gathered together in the name of equality.

“There is something wrong with the idea that hundreds of African Americans, ones who have grown up in Selma and went to Selma’s segregated public schools, pass the name of a KKK leader every single day,” Students UNITE Executive Director John Gainey told Mic. “We have no desire to erase history, but there are some parts of our country’s past that should not be celebrated or honored.”

In addition to Selma being a landmark for the Civil Rights Movement, it is currently a city with an overwhelmingly Black population.

“Selma is currently 80% African American, with a black mayor and majority African American local city officials,” Students UNITE explained on the Change.org page. “The name Edmund Pettus is far from what the city of Selma should honor. Let’s change the image of the bridge from hatred and rename it to memorialize hope and progress.”

Gainey said that a few new names have already been proposed for the bridge including the “Freedom Bridge” or “Bridge to Hope.”

He added that he believes the people of Selma should ultimately have the final say on what the bridge’s new name will be.

“We are doing this for the people of Selma today,” Gainey said.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/civil-rights-activists-make-major-push-kkk-leaders-name-stripped-selmas-edmund-pettus-bridge/feed/0Watch This Gifted and Brilliant 10-Year Old Girl Amaze You With Her Career Plans for The Next 6 Yearshttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/watch-this-gifted-and-brilliant-10-year-old-girl-amaze-you-with-her-career-plans-for-the-next-6-years/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/watch-this-gifted-and-brilliant-10-year-old-girl-amaze-you-with-her-career-plans-for-the-next-6-years/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 15:12:03 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232513Video posted online by Mediatakeout
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/watch-this-gifted-and-brilliant-10-year-old-girl-amaze-you-with-her-career-plans-for-the-next-6-years/feed/0Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Disrespect of Obama Clearly Shows Who Has the Power in the Relationshiphttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/in-his-disrespect-of-obama-prime-minister-netanyahu-is-clearly-showing-who-has-the-power-in-the-relationship/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/in-his-disrespect-of-obama-prime-minister-netanyahu-is-clearly-showing-who-has-the-power-in-the-relationship/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 14:30:08 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232512The historic presidency of Barack Obama is about to experience another first today.

Obama’s presidency has seen innumerable firsts during his six years in office. But we’re not talking the kind of firsts that will get recorded on plaques. No, these are firsts that many observers in the Black community feel are inextricably connected to his status as the first Black president.

From a Congressman screaming “You lie” during the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress in 2009 to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wagging a scolding finger in his face on the tarmac in Phoenix in 2012, the president has been on the receiving end of gestures that his predecessors never had to endure.

The speech that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to make today to a joint session of Congress, a speech orchestrated by House Speaker John Boehner, directly against the president’s wishes, will quickly rise to the top of the list of nasty insults.

The symbolism of Netanyahu marching into Congress to deliver a rebuke to Obama’s foreign policy stance on Iran is so deep, so profound, that presidential scholars and historians will be mining this day for years, writing book-length analyses of what it means to a presidency to have the opposition party align itself with a leader of a foreign land over the sitting U.S. president.

But perhaps the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is so special in the mind of Boehner that he doesn’t even see Netanyahu as the leader of a foreign land. After all, the U.S. provides so many billions to Israel every year in grants, loans, cash disbursals—directly from the U.S. government and also in the form of tax-deductible donations to Israel from private U.S. citizens—that in the minds of many Israel is more of a beneficiary of American largesse than most of the communities of color that are actually filled with U.S. citizens.

At least the president will have the visible support of many members of his party—Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and more than 50 Democratic lawmakers plan to skip Netanyahu’s speech. Those who vote with their feet should be noted—they are likely the ones who don’t feel beholden to the powerful Israeli lobby and its campaign dollars.

The White House even helped along the boycott by House Democrats by inviting them to a trade meeting at the White House on Tuesday at a time that would make it hard for them to attend the speech.

There have been times when the president has been at the receiving end of insults that he has pretended weren’t insults at all , but this time he’s not playing that game. He refused to meet with Netanyahu during his visit. And during an interview yesterday with Reuters, he said the equivalent of the Netanyahu speech would be if Democrats in Congress had invited the French president to speak after he opposed President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

“I guarantee you that some of the same commentators who are cheerleading now would have suggested that it was the wrong thing to do,” he said.

The Black community watches all of this unfold with a knowing shaking of the head. To a community that has stockpiled generations of slights, large and small, parsing the etymology of the racial insult has become a long-honed art form. Of course, there is danger in seeing something that’s not always there, but we see far more danger in not seeing it when it’s sitting there wrapped in a big red bow.

“This is not a personal issue,” Obama said. “I think that it is important for every country in its relationship with the United States to recognize that the U.S. has a process of making policy.”

In other words, there are ways of properly voicing foreign policy disagreements—and this ain’t it. Even if Boehner was being incredibly disrespectful in extending the invitation, the prime minister, who is facing a close election in two weeks to keep his job, should have respected the American president enough to decline. Choose another American forum to publicly disagree with Obama’s decision to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear policy.

Minister Louis Farrakhan, as only he can, described the nature of the insult so that anyone could understand it.

“He’s the president,” Farrakhan said right before Netanyahu landed in the U.S.. “Here’s a man coming in your house. You’re the head of the house. And somebody in the house invites you in the house and you sneak in the back door and don’t even greet the head of the house and ask his permission. Is that an insult? Is that the way they think of our brother president? ‘We’re gonna do whatever we want to do, cause you ain’t nothing but a ni**er in the White House.’ Don’t tell me they don’t think like that.”

Netanyahu, in his speech before an estimated 16,000 supporters of Israel at the Aipac conference, said the whole thing was nothing more than a “family” fight that would ultimately be overcome. He expressed his gratitude to Obama for his support of Israel over the years.

“My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds,” Netanyahu told the crowd, which greeted him with standing ovations. “I have great respect for both.”

What this really means is that Netanyahu is so secure in his country’s dominance of American politics, he fears no threat of any kind of retaliation or retribution. Politics is and always will be a power game. By stomping into the Capitol Building and giving the equivalent of a middle finger to Obama, Netanyahu is clearly demonstrating who has the power in the relationship.

Edward Wycoff Williams, an author, columnist and political analyst for MSNBC, conveyed a reality that many do not seem to know is real. Williams wrote for TheRoot: “It seems that the media in general and white American society in particular prefer to focus on crime perpetrated by African Americans because it serves as a way to absolve them from the violence, prejudice and institutionalized discrimination engendered for generations against blacks. It offers a buffer against responsibility, a way to shift blame and deflect cause and effect. But the truth, and numbers, tell a different story. At the heart of an increasingly violent society is not a subculture among Blacks, but the violence and criminality of many Americans, and whites in particular. No one seems to speak about this. Why? Because the snake oil was duly purchased and consumed. It is time for race-based pseudo-facts to be challenged and dismantled.”

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/9-facts-white-white-crime-far-exceeds-black-black-crime-media-conceals/feed/0Black Lives Matter Movement Should Borrow From Black Panthers and Add Economic Injustice To Its Platformhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/black-lives-matter-movement-should-borrow-from-black-panthers-and-add-economic-injustice-to-its-platform/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/03/black-lives-matter-movement-should-borrow-from-black-panthers-and-add-economic-injustice-to-its-platform/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 13:45:07 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232413While the Black Lives Matter movement has been extremely successful in galvanizing national attention and outrage around police abuse and killing of Black people, the movement would be much more effective if it added an economic component to its demands—just as the Black Panther Party did in the 1960s.

That is the intriguing argument made by writer Deena Guzder in a piece at Al Jazeera America. While Guzder is full of praise for the way the Black Lives Matter movement was able to commandeer the nation’s attention to its cause, she said it would be even more powerful if it married the call for an end to police brutalization of Black people with efforts to close the enormous wealth gap that has left so many Black people in dire economic straits.

Renewed attention is being brought to the incredibly transformative power of the Panthers with the release of a documentary, “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” by Stanley Nelson that premiered last month at the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary takes a deep dive into the world of the Panthers, using rare archival footage and a slew of interviews with party leaders, rank-and-file members and even FBI informants.

“The Panthers didn’t just pay lip service to economic concerns; the party launched a massive social revitalization program in black communities,” Guzder writes. “The group’s free breakfast program at its height served 20,000 meals a week to low-income children in 19 communities across the country. The Panthers operated free health clinics and education programs in inner-city neighborhoods. These efforts were not top-down charities but horizontally run community initiatives that welcomed newcomers as equals. These social programs also served the crucial purpose of bringing community members together to brainstorm and collaborate on how to better their lives.”

With stories about the nation’s wealth inequality lately crowding the headlines, Guzder suggests that the Black Lives Matter movement grasp onto economic equality as the next plank in its platform—just as the Panthers penetrated deep into the community’s psyche by understanding its needs, pushing beyond police brutality to full employment and decent housing.

Jamal Joseph, a filmmaker and former Panther, explained in the documentary why the Panthers used this approach.

“The civil rights movement was basically a Southern movement,” he said. “So when you had an organization like the Panthers taking on housing and welfare and health, that was stuff people in the North could relate to and rally behind.”

“What would it look like if the Black Lives Matter movement embraced the struggle for economic justice in practice rather than just in rhetoric?” Guzder asks. “A simple, preliminary step would be to reinstate the Black Panthers’ free breakfast program in communities most affected by police brutality and economic marginalization. These programs could provide a forum for discussing issues affecting the community, including economic concerns.”

“While the Panthers’ conception of black power was far from perfect, it successfully captured the interest of a generation of urban African-Americans by fighting for both civil and economic rights,” Guzder writes. “The Panthers understood that police brutality is just one form of state violence.”

When his efforts to drum up new business are interrupted by alarming news, Jimmy is pressured to make a difficult choice.

Better Call Saul is the prequel to the award-winning series Breaking Bad, set six years before Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) became Walter White’s lawyer. When we meet him, the man who will become Saul Goodman is known as Jimmy McGill, a small-time lawyer searching for his destiny, and, more immediately, hustling to make ends meet. Working alongside, and often against, Jimmy is “fixer” Mike Erhmantraut (Jonathan Banks), a beloved character introduced in BreakingBad. The series will track Jimmy’s transformation into Saul Goodman, the man who puts “criminal” in “criminal lawyer.”

Gordon seeks information about the controversy involving Loeb. Fish’s allegiance with the prisoners is questioned, and Bruce copes with the aftermath of an attack close to home.

The good. The evil. The beginning. Everyone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world’s greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon’s story and his rise from rookie detective to police commissioner? What did it take to navigate the multiple layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world’s most iconic villains? And what circumstances created them – the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker? Gotham is an origin story of the great DC Comics super-villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told.

Ceaser announces news to the crew about Puma and Ink 124. Meanwhile, a drug test is failed, and Puma shows up at Quani’s job.

Enter the world of the Black Ink Crew and meet the girls and guys who run the only Black-owned and operated tattoo parlor in the heart of Harlem at 113th Street and Lenox Avenue. The employees are a tight, but totally dysfunctional “family.” For many of them, this shop is the key to turning their lives around, and for some of them, it’s their first legitimate job off the streets. To the people who work there, Black Ink is more than just one of the most famous — and infamous — tattoo shops in the country … it’s home. The shop is also a magnet for hip-hop stars and athletes, but the real flavor comes from the quite colorful characters who walk into the shop on a daily basis. Inside the doors of Black Ink, you never know what you are going to get. From the sexy new girl on the block, Dutchess, to the party animal of the group, Puma, the characters are crazy, sexy, funny and, most of all, lovable. This hourlong docu-series follows the lives of Ceaser, Dutchess, Alex, Sassy, Puma, and O’ S**t, as they work, live, party and hang out in Harlem. Black Ink Crew explores the friendships, crushes, rivalries and craziness that comes when a group of friends becomes family.

Lindy is drawn into the past by a message from the killer and also unearths shocking revelations about her case.

Eye Candy centers on tech genius Lindy who, convinced by her roommate to begin online dating, begins to suspect that one of her mysterious suitors may be a deadly cyber stalker. When her friends at the elusive cyber-police uncover a potential serial killer in Manhattan, all signs point to one of Lindy’s dates. Teaming up with this band of hackers, Lindy works to solve the murders while unleashing her own style of justice on the streets of New York City.

Eye Candy season 1, episode 8 airs March 2 at 10 p.m. EST on MTV.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/eye-candy-season-1-episode-8-ama/feed/0Michael Jordan Catapults To Forbes’ Billionaire List. . . And You’ll Never Guess Who Helped Him Get Therehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/michael-jordan-catapults-forbes-billionaire-list-youll-never-guess-helped-get/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/michael-jordan-catapults-forbes-billionaire-list-youll-never-guess-helped-get/#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:10 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232444Michael Jordan, who once said he had “zero” interest in owning an NBA franchise, just ascended to billionaire status because of his ownership of the Charlotte Hornets—and he has none other than disgraced former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling partly to thank for the rare distinction.

During the 1996 season, Jordan said he would not consider NBA ownership because he “didn’t want the headache.” His reversal has earned him a fortune and a spot on Forbes just-released 2015 billionaires list.

Some may argue if Jordan is the best player in league history, as it is a matter of opinion. No one can dispute that he’s the best-paid athlete in any sport.

Most of Jordan’s wealth comes from Nike payouts on his worldwide iconic sneaker and athletic apparel brand. The Jordan brand grossed an estimated $2.25 billion in 2013, according to Forbes, earning Jordan some $90 million.

But his most valuable asset is his stake in the Hornets, worth more than $500 million. Here’s where Sterling comes in. His racist comments about Blacks in general and Magic Johnson in particular earned him expulsion from the league.

He was forced to sell his franchise by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Enter eager ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who bought the Clippers for a stunning $2 billion, significantly over its market value, according to analysts. But values of all NBA teams skyrocketed, creating three new billionaires from the league including Jordan, his former boss Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls ($1.3 billion), and Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander ($1.6 billion).

Jordan is the only African-American to own an NBA franchise—and the only Black person among the new 290 members to the Billionaires Club. He purchased the team for $275 million in 2010. The NBA’s enormous new TV deal with ESPN and Turner adds even more value to the franchise.

In the deal, which begins in 2016, the networks will pay the NBA an average of $2.66 billion per year. They paid about $930 million per year under the old deal. That works out to an extra $57 million in revenue per year for MJ’s Hornets.

Jordan bought the team when franchise values were stagnating. They have since exploded into a stratosphere no one could have expected. Jordan would never do it, but he can thank Sterling for his ugly remarks, as they helped Jordan and others in a significant ways.

When people think of the hip-hop life, they think of the players – the men who shape the music and the blinged-out lifestyle that comes with success. The fact is the hip-hop life is different for the women involved: the spouses, girlfriends or artists trying to define themselves in a world where men are still calling the shots. VH1′s new, eight-part docu-soap series Love&HipHop follows four dynamic women who are connected to the world of hip-hop, whether it’s through the men they love or their struggle to be heard as artists. Love&HipHop provides a dramatic, funny and sometimes heartbreaking look into the female side of the New York hip-hop life as these four women try to claim their own place in it.

In this week’s episode, Joe Carroll is on death row and his followers are no more, but a fresh series of brutal killings reopens old wounds for Ryan Hardy, and a terrifying new nemesis awaits him and the team.

The FBI estimates there are more than 300 active serial killers in the United States. What would happen if these killers had a way of communicating and connecting with each other? What if they were able to work together and form alliances across the country? What if one brilliant psychotic serial killer was able to bring them all together and activate a following? When notorious serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) escapes from death row and embarks on a new killing spree, the FBI calls former agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) to consult on the case. Having since withdrawn from the public eye, Hardy was responsible for Carroll’s capture nine years ago.

That was the massive claim Drake made on his track “Legend” from his latest project If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. While it may have seemed like an empty declaration to some, the young rapper is backing up those claims by reaching a major Billboard milestone, making a mark in hip hop history and conquering the unusual obstacles that rap stars face when it comes to finding lasting success in the music business.

Drake’s surprise album was intended to be a free mixtape, according to reports from Billboard, but when Drake decided to drop the project on iTunes with a price attached to it, it officially qualified as an album. This placed the 28-year-old rapper in the running to prove his self-proclaimed legendary status.

The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and pushed 10 of the tracks on to the Hot 100 chart.

Combined with his recent hip hop features, the total comes up to 14 songs all resting in the Hot 100 at the same time, tying him with the Beatles who had the same number of hits on the Hot 100 at the same time back in 1964.

While some people have been quick to suggest that it’s easier for artists to get songs on the Hot 100 today, that argument falls flat considering the fact that nobody has managed to match the Beatles’ record in more than 50 years—even with the new Nielsen ratings formula.

Drake’s accomplishment also stands out for the fact that he managed to get 14 hip hop hits on the Hot 100, a chart that has been difficult for many rappers to land on at all.

There are notable differences between Drake’s record when compared to that of the Beatles.

Drake’s highest ranking hit was his feature on Nicki Minaj’s “Only,” which landed at number 16.

The Beatles, on the other hand, managed to not only claim the number one spot but they also dominated the top 10 slots with a total of five songs in the top 10.

For those who keep up with the Billboard charts, this comes as no surprise since rock and pop are two highly favored genres on the chart as opposed to hip hop and rap.

Internet trolls have also taken jabs at the record claiming it shouldn’t count since four of the tracks were features and not Drake’s song alone.

As Billboard pointed out, however, the Beatles came to musical prominence during a time when the music industry was “largely devoid of featured billings.”

This is perhaps the most key difference between the two records and precisely why Drake and the Beatles should not be compared to one another simply because they hold the same record.

Both Drake and the Beatles have proven their musical prowess, but they also belong to two completely different generations of listeners and two different eras for the music industry.

Matching the Beatles’ record is not a sign that Drake and the iconic rock band are equals, but instead shines a light on Drake’s ability, as a Black rapper, to achieve what a group of white men did 51 years ago despite the fact that Drake is performing in the disadvantaged genre.

Despite these obstacles, Drake has been consistently making Billboard history.

If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late had every single track land on the Billboard chart for R&B/Hip-Hop.

This makes his simultaneous total for the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Chart a record-breaking 21.

Drake also became the first rapper to ever top the Billboard Artist 100 chart, beating out pop stars like Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 and even the 2015 Grammy favorite Sam Smith.

Drake also has an impressive 85 tracks that have appeared on the Hot 100, ranking him at number 5 for artists with the most Hot 100 hits.

He is only beat by Elvis Presley, James Brown, Lil Wayne and the cast of Glee, which means he has already recorded more Hot 100 hits than Jay Z, Ray Charles, Elton John and, yes, the Beatles.

So despite naysayers trying to downplay the hip hop star’s accomplishment, it’s clear that the rap star is blazing trails not only in hip hop but in the music industry as a whole.

His four features only prove that even without his own album out he remains at the top of musical relevancy and his inability to dominate the Top 10 is a reminder that even when hip hop music becomes a culturally appropriated commodity, the devaluation of Black art makes it seemingly impossible for hip hop to climb to the top of the mainstream music totem pole.

In yet another indication that the NYPD makes life just as tough for Black and Hispanic New Yorkers who serve on the force as it does for those walking the streets, a group of Black and Hispanic officers are filing a class action lawsuit against the force for punishing them for not meeting ticket quotas.

The story of the suit was first published in the New York Post, which revealed that the officers claim they are routinely denied overtime and vacation, demoted to menial posts and even threatened with firing if they don’t meet quotas such as making one arrest and issuing 20 summonses per month.

Black NYPD officers have complained in the past about harsh treatment inside the force—and about their fears of being harassed and abused when they are out of uniform and are just regular Black men walking the streets. In this suit, they say they are punished more harshly than white cops when they fail to meet their numbers.

“At this point, you either come up with the numbers or there is hell to pay,’’ Bronx Officer Adhyl Polanco told The Post.

Polanco has been a courageous voice speaking out against wrongdoing in the department. He became known to the public a few years ago when he informed the department’s Internal Affairs bureau that his supervisors in the Bronx were forcing him to meet ticket quotas and fudge numbers to make the precinct look better — and was rewarded for his efforts by being suspended by the department. He also testified against the department in the stop-and-frisk trial in federal court last year, which resulted in the policy being declared an unconstitutional violation of the rights of Black and Hispanic New Yorkers.

During an interview on Democracy Now, Polanco asked in December how his NYPD colleagues could find fault with Mayor Bill de Blasio for expressing his fears for his biracial son, Dante.

In this lawsuit, Polanco and the other officers say the punishment is racially based.

Officer Pedro Serrano, who also testified against the department in the stop-and-frisk case, says in the suit that he protested to a superior that the Puerto Ricans he was targeting for summonses in his South Bronx precinct couldn’t afford the fines, but was told it was OK because they were “animals.” Serrano was particularly offended because he’s Puerto Rican.

According to Polanco, after he complained about the quotas, he was warned, “If you think one and 20 is breaking your balls, guess what you’ll be doing. You’ll be doing a lot more.”

“Next week, [it’ll be] 25 and one, 35 and one, and until you decide to quit this job and go to work at Pizza Hut, this is what you are going to do until then,” the second supervisor said, according to court papers.

The Post says seven more NYPD traffic cops are about to file a separate class-action federal lawsuit claiming they were denied promotions and punished with no overtime and lost vacation in retaliation for balking at quotas as well.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/black-hispanic-officers-sue-nypd-claiming-they-were-punished-for-balking-at-ticket-and-arrest-quotas/feed/0The Racism This Video Reveals In South African Schools Is The Distressing Truth Of How Apartheid Still Permeates The Culturehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/the-racism-this-video-reveals-in-south-african-schools-is-the-distressing-truth-of-how-apartheid-still-permeates-the-culture/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/the-racism-this-video-reveals-in-south-african-schools-is-the-distressing-truth-of-how-apartheid-still-permeates-the-culture/#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 19:26:35 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232331Video by eNCA
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/the-racism-this-video-reveals-in-south-african-schools-is-the-distressing-truth-of-how-apartheid-still-permeates-the-culture/feed/1Venus Williams May Not Be Winning Grand Slams Any More, But She Serves An Ace In Leading and Supporting Little Sister Serenahttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/venus-williams-serves-ace-leading-supporting-little-sister-serena/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/venus-williams-serves-ace-leading-supporting-little-sister-serena/#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 19:00:42 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232410

Williams sisters after 2003 Wimbledon, won by Serena (left).

Venus Williams does not get as much love or attention as she once did, when she was winning tennis tournaments. But she’s lathered in it from her sister Serena, who sort of inherited the role of dominating the sport from her older sibling, keeping the reign of success in the most unlikeliest of families, considering the sport.

And in a very real way, Serena has her sister to credit for the enormous run she has made that likely will end with her considered the greatest woman tennis player of all time. Serena surely is the most dominant athlete now, in any sport. Venus’ role in her emergence and continued supremacy is palatable.

She created a legacy for her younger sister, entering the 99.9 percent white sport and soaring, all the while doing so with elegance and grace. Little sister watched big sister do it the admirable way—with sportsmanship and dignity, and she followed suit, only with even more talent.

Not only that, but Venus mentored her along the way, took up for her when necessary, demanded more of her on the court and—and this is significant—has not shown any jealously about Serena’s ascension as the better player. They are each other’s best friends.

“My first job is big sister,” Venus Williams said. “I take that very seriously.”

And this sums up the relationship better than anything else.

“I always like to win,” Venus said. “But I’m the big sister. I want to make sure she has everything, even if I don’t have anything. It’s hard. I love her too much. That’s what counts.”

That kind of unconditional love and support is not common, even among siblings. But it has been an element to Serena’s rise that is invaluable. If Venus had shown envy of Serena’s success, there’s no telling how it would impact how either of them played.

But showing unwavering support has been a springboard for Serena.

“Family’s first, and that’s what matters most,” Serena has said. “We realize that our love goes deeper than the tennis game. Tennis is a game; family is forever.”

Their father, Richard Williams said “wait to you see Serena,” when Venus was winning Grand Slams. Dad was right. He had taught them the sport and trained them in Compton, Calif., where Venus said they could hear gunfire “a few streets away” as they practiced.

Their training under such conditions made them battle-tested. Venus has won seven Grand Slam championships; Serena has 19. In sister-to-sister matchups, Venus has won 11 to Serena’s 14. Serena has won six of eight Grand Slam finals against Venus.

At the end of each Williams vs. Williams match, there is a discernible sadness for the winner.

“Very awkward,” they both have said.

Together, they have won 13 Grand Slam doubles championships.

To watch Venus play in person, like at the 2000 Olympics in Australia, is to watch an athlete of beautiful technique and presence. She played with a diamond-laced tiara, which was appropriate because she was a princess on the court, controlling the action with smooth backhands, powerful volleys and an intelligent approach. She was No. 1 in the world.

But Venus has not won a major singles title in seven years, mostly because of Serena and also because of injury. And she was diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease which is an ongoing medical condition that affects her energy level and causes fatigue and joint pain—not good for a tennis player.

A championship smile by Venus Williams

But she plays on, her head up. And listen to how she takes defeat.

“(The) losses have propelled me to even bigger places,” she said.

That’s a sage perspective for a 34-year-old.

“I understand the importance of losing,” she added. “You can never get complacent because a loss is always around the corner. It’s in any game that you’re in—a business game or whatever—you can’t get complacent.”

Venus Williams is not complacent. She’s continuing to lead her little sister in the way she plays, the way she handles herself, the way she manages losing and the way she supports her remarkable sibling.

“Sometimes in life you have to learn to deal with the cards you’ve been dealt,” she says. “I’ve been trying to get used to my new life. The good part is I know how to play tennis and I have a lot of experience, so that helps me a lot on the court.”

But Venus Williams sees life bigger than the sport she loves.

“My ambition,” she said, “is to enjoy my life and to do exactly what I want to do. And I’ll do that. I will be free.”

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/venus-williams-serves-ace-leading-supporting-little-sister-serena/feed/3After Failing to Charge Darren Wilson, Justice Department Slams Ferguson Police Department for Discrimination and Profilinghttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/justice-department-criticizes-ferguson-police-department-discrimination-profiling/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/justice-department-criticizes-ferguson-police-department-discrimination-profiling/#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 17:32:16 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232374The highly anticipated results of the Justice Department’s investigation into the Ferguson Police Department wrought confirmation of what many already suspected: That it was laden with racial profiling and animosity toward the town’s Black citizens, all of which created the environment that led to officer Darren Wilson shooting and killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown in the middle of the street, in front of witnesses, in broad daylight.

Law enforcement officials, speaking under the condition of anonymity to The New York Times, said the soon-to-be-released report criticizes the city for disproportionately ticketing and arresting African-Americans and relying on the fines to balance the city’s budget.

Just as in other cases where the Justice Department investigated police behavior against Black people, the most it will do is force Ferguson officials to either negotiate a settlement with the Justice Department or face being sued by Justice on civil rights charges.

As in the case of George Zimmerman, who also escaped charges from Justice, the Ferguson case serves as another reminder to African-Americans that it is not wise to place too great an expectation of justice on a federal government that has often been a primary player in the subjugation and large-scale incarceration of the African-American community.

But what about slain Michael Brown and his family? What about the countless number of Black people in Ferguson who have been profiled for years and stuck in prisons for indeterminate amounts of time for no just cause? What about the massive fallout after Wilson killed the unarmed teenager?

The Justice Department’s probe into Wilson’s shooting of Brown found no “sufficient” evidence to charge him. In December, the Justice Department found no reason to charge New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the choke-hold death of Eric Garner, which was captured on cell phone video. Last month, Zimmerman, who killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, was found to not have violated Martin’s civil rights.

Outgoing attorney general Eric Holder received criticism for his remarks in the summer after a visit to the distressed town.

“I wanted the people of Ferguson to know that I personally understood that mistrust,” Holder said at the time. “I wanted them to know that while so much else may be uncertain, this attorney general and this Department of Justice stands with the people of Ferguson.”

He added that the investigation would be fair and independent. “I’m confident people will be satisfied with the results,” he said.

That part, he might not be so accurate.

The report, to be released in coming days, will describe the tension between the mostly Black town and the mostly white police department. The investigation reportedly focused on the practice of excessive for and disproportionate jailing of African-American citizens for traffic stops.

Black people accounted for 86 percent of traffic stops in 2013 but make up 63 percent of the population, according to the most recent data published by the Missouri attorney general. And once they were stopped, Black drivers were twice as likely to be searched, even though searches of white drivers were more likely to turn up contraband.

These traffic stops and subsequent arrests turn into significant jail time and debts because of the mounting fines, which are Ferguson’s No. 2 source of revenue. Sales tax is No. 1. Federal investigators say that has provided a financial incentive to continue law enforcement policies that unfairly target African-Americans.

Ferguson’s case is sadly similar to that of city of Clanton, Ala., which was cited to have run a debtors’ prison. A lawsuit says city officials there keep poor people in jail simply because of their inability to pay fines.

“Because such systems do not account for individual circumstances of the accused, they essentially mandate pretrial detention for anyone who is too poor to pay the predetermined fee,” wrote Vanita Gupta, the top civil rights prosecutor at the Justice Department, who is also supervising the Ferguson inquiry.

President Barack Obama has said the people of Ferguson “have deep roots in many communities of color who have a sense that our laws are not always being enforced uniformly or fairly.”

Holder has called for more complete record keeping on the number of police shootings and how often officers are themselves shot at. FBI Director James Comey, in a bold speech last month on race and law enforcement, said police officers may be informed by unconscious biases and tempted by “lazy shortcuts of cynicism.”

“We must better understand the people we serve and protect, by trying to know deep in our gut what it feels like to be a law-abiding young Black man walking down the street and encountering law enforcement,” Comey said.

Senior Pastor Dr. Carlton P. Byrd with Sybrina Fulton, who is honored at Oakwood University Church in Huntsville, Alabama on Saturday Feb. 28, 2015 for her violence prevention work by receiving the Black History Achievement Award. (Bob Gathany)

Following the death of her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, many things came as a surprise to Sybrina Fulton. The overwhelming amount of support from the public surprised the grieving mother and the sheer pervasiveness of racism in America was startling. The Department of Justice’s recent decision not to press any charges against the man responsible for her unarmed son’s death, however, was sadly the most predictable part of the aftermath.

It has been three years since volunteer neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman fatally shot Martin as he made his way home from a Florida convenient store, yet emotions in the Black community still remain high over the string of high profile deaths of unarmed Black men.

Today, a hoodie has crossed the boundary from a simple piece of apparel to a symbolic statement of solidarity with Trayvon, in addition to a call for justice for the Black community.

It’s a fight that Martin’s mother was surprised to see happening, but she was even more surprised to realize it even needed to happen.

After receiving a special achievement award from Oakwood University Church, she took questions from the press and revealed that her son’s death served as a reminder that America wasn’t as equal and fair as its patriotic harmonies suggest.

“Sadly, I’ve learned…in my small mind I thought we’d come much further than we had,” she told reporters. “I thought we’d moved past a lot of this. I didn’t realize how deep-rooted profiling is and how rooted discrimination is. I was disappointed to find that out.”

As it turned out, the three years following Martin’s death would serve as a serious wake-up call for many Americans who believed that Black people had finally found equality and justice in the land that boasted a premature title of being “post racial.”

Even as some members of the Black community clung tightly to hopes that federal intervention would bring change and justice to the families of the slain Black citizens, Fulton said she already had an idea of what the outcome would be.

When reporters asked Fulton if she was surprised by the Department of Justice’s decision earlier this week not to bring any charges against Zimmerman, she explained that she was “disappointed” but not surprised.

“It was disappointing, not surprising,” she said. “It would be surprising if they filed charges.”

For this reason, the federal agency was never much of a sign of hope for Fulton, but the support from the community was.

“Social media has brought a lot of people together,” she said at the press conference. “Two million people signed the Change.org petition for Trayvon. I had to get storage for all the cards and flowers people have sent. So much love has come out of this.”

Fulton added that dealing with her son’s death hasn’t gotten any easier, but now she is focusing on making a change.

She has since created a foundation in her son’s name that aims to “create awareness of how violent crime impacts the families of the victims and to provide support and advocacy for those families,” according to the foundation’s website.

She is also encouraging more young Black people to focus on their education and realize just how powerful a tool that really is.

“Education is so powerful,” she continued. “You don’t quite get it until you get into the real world. Education is so paramount.”

Even then, she realizes, it won’t be the solution to the type of deadly racial profiling that is stealing too many Black lives, but she is holding on to hope that change will happen soon.

“And I want you to have hope in this country,” she added. “There is going to be a change, where you won’t be afraid of getting shot for walking down the street, for wearing a hoodie or playing your music too loud. But we’re going to have to change people’s mindsets before we change the laws.”

The head of the United Nations agriculture agency underlined yesterday the huge importance of agriculture and farming to countries of the Caribbean during an address to heads of government at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit in The Bahamas.

“Strengthening agriculture and increasing support to small-scale and family farming will help ensure greater sufficiency in local food production, protecting your economies from external price shock,” the FAO director-general, José Graziano da Silva, told the audience, noting the need to meet challenges like climate change and to create jobs, particularly for youth.

Graziano da Silva described agriculture and family farming as “drivers of inclusive economic growth and sustainable development,” and noted how they can create new employment opportunities and be linked to the tourism industry, an important source of revenue for many Caribbean countries.

He stressed also the substantial progress made through efforts made in the past two decades by CARICOM members to combat hunger and malnutrition, with Barbados, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname among the 70 developing countries to have already met the Millennium Development Goals hunger target of halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015.

“Let’s be inspired by these success stories, because a lot remains to be done,” he told the assembled leaders, continuing to note that hunger is only one of the faces of malnutrition, with obesity, which affects over 500 million adults, the other extreme of poor nutrition.

“This is an issue of concern in the Caribbean and FAO is assisting CARICOM countries design and implement strategies, policies and plans of action that tackle the multiple dimensions of malnutrition,” he said, pointing to action plans already approved in Belize, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia, and awaiting approval in most remaining countries of the region.

On several efforts to boost security, South-South cooperation was prominent, with Brazil having developed a strong cooperation program focusing on food security and nutrition, supporting and linking family farming to the provision of school meals, and several other cooperative initiatives in place to protect food production, such as Cuba’s assistance in the fight against the Black Sigatoka banana plague.

Pointing to food price increases that were impacting food import bills for CARICOM countries, he noted also the particular vulnerability of countries in the region to extreme events like hurricanes, and the impact of climate change, which increased the frequency, violence and unpredictability of such events and heightened the threat posed to the region’s agriculture, food security and sustainable development.

Namibia’s outgoing president, Hifikepunye Pohamba, has won the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s $5 million African leadership prize, an award meant to recognize good governance that has been presented only three times in eight years.

Since it was set up by the Sudanese telecom tycoon in 2007, the prize has gone to three former presidents, from Cape Verde, Mozambique and Botswana. In other years, no one was found to have met the criteria.

To win the prize, a leader must have been democratically elected and have left office in the last three years, serving only their constitutionally mandated term. The winner must also have displayed “exceptional leadership.”

Although elections have now become common on the continent, some leaders have stayed in office long after their original mandate, often pushing through constitutional changes to hold onto power.

Announcing the award in Nairobi, the Mo Ibrahim committee praised Pohamba’s commitment to the rule of law and his respect for the constitution, as well as his promotion of gender equality.

Pohamba, 79, was first elected president in 2005 and is due to step down this month. The elections held under his leadership were considered by observers to be free and fair.

Pohamba was a founding member of the now ruling South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO), playing a central role in decades of struggle for independence from South Africa.

He was imprisoned in the 1960s for political activism but continued to fight against South Africa’s apartheid government until the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

He held home affairs and marine resources portfolios in cabinet prior to becoming president.

The winner receives $5 million, given over 10 years, and after that receives $200,000 a year for life.

The previous recipients were former presidents Pedro de Verona Rogrigues Pires of Cape Verde, Mozambique’s Joaquim Chissano and Festus Mogae of Botswana. South Africa’s Nelson Mandela was also given an honorary award.

When Sean Grant goes on trial this week in Volusia County, Florida, the major charges against him will be two counts of aggravated assault. But in the eyes of his lawyer, Mark O’Mara, race will be a major—but likely unspoken—presence in the courtroom.

Grant took a sandwich and a beer from a Racetrac gas station on October 21, 2013 without paying for them. That fact is not in dispute. Grant admits to the shoplifting, which he said was stupid and inexcusable.

But in response to the crime, a police officer who was inside of the Racetrac exited the store and fired a volley of four or five shots inside Grant’s Honda. One bullet shattered Grant’s wrist, another hit him in the cheek and another lodged in the chest of Grant’s acquaintance, William Kitchen, just a centimeter from his aorta. Kitchen survived, but the bullet is still in his chest—too close to his heart to risk removing it.

The officer, Joshua Santos of the Deland Police Department, said he fired at Grant because he thought the car was headed toward him and his partner. Grant, who was 27 at the time, said he saw the gun pointed at him and was just trying to get out of the parking lot. Kitchen, who is white, confirms Grant’s account. So do the skid marks showing that his car accelerated in a left turn away from the officers.

But O’Mara said he doesn’t think Officer Santos would have even taken the gun out of his holster if Grant wasn’t Black.

It is the kind of case that tests whether the American legal system is able to handle common sense and police overreaction when a young Black male is on trial. It is the kind of case that draws even extra scrutiny in this age of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

“If Sean Grant was white with a sweater wrapped around his neck, that gun is not coming out,” O’Mara said in an interview with Atlanta Blackstar. “I don’t see it. That gun does not come out. That gun was out of that holster before that car is going forward. There’s no other fact scenario that makes sense. Why the hell was he taking a gun out because a guy stole a sandwich? And I don’t care he’s trying to get away. You still can’t pull a gun. But he pulled a gun because he’s okay with pulling a gun under the facts that he saw.”

O’Mara understands that in the eyes of most of the public, which got accustomed to watching him over the course of months vigorously defend George Zimmerman for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin inside a Florida subdivision, he’s an unlikely figure to be pushing the idea of racial bias against Black males. But he says that’s because most of the public doesn’t know the majority of the clients he’s defended over more than 30 years as a defense lawyer have been Black males.

During those years of watching the system up close, he knows there are many things that happen in a courtroom when the defendant is a Black man. And in the case of Grant, when the trial begins on Monday, O’Mara said he knows what the Deland jury will be thinking.

“They [the prosecutors] are not going to say ‘Black kid.’ They don’t need to say ‘Black kid’ to a Deland, mostly white, mostly country jury,” O’Mara predicted. “They’re going to sit back and say this cop saw a threat, he saw the car aiming towards him, this guy is a criminal because he stole a sandwich and the cop did what he had to do.”

After what he did to Trayvon in the Zimmerman trial, O’Mara sees the irony of him being disturbed that his client in this case will be seen as guilty because of the shoplifting.

“I got blamed for blaming Trayvon in Zimmerman case,” he said. “I tell you right now, you know it as well as I do [that Grant will be blamed]. And I’m not a bleeding heart liberal. I just live my life here and I know all this stuff. When people hassle me for representing Zimmerman, I remind them of my pedigree. I’ve been doing this for 32 years. I’ve got more death penalty cases then most people around. I’ve represented a disproportionate amount of young Black males because there’s a disproportionate amount of young Black males in the system. I know my pedigree. But they are going to look at that jury and say, ‘Just look at the fact [of what Grant did].”

O’Mara said he’s been a lawyer long enough to know that people behave differently when they are interacting with young Black males. It’s not always even something of which they are aware.

“There’s not an the active racism in system there was in the 1950s and 60s,” O’Mara said. “In the 50s and 60s you can look at statutes that said Blacks shall not use this bathroom, this water fountain. We had statutorily endorsed racism. Now the racism that exists is more subtle. By subtle I mean it’s more subconscious. That’s why the studies you look at show that everybody looks at young Black males differently, as more suspicious. Walking down the street, doing whatever. Sociological studies done of people looking at pictures show they react differently when it’s a young Black male than when it’s a young white male.

“So I’m not saying this guy decided, ‘I get to kill a Black kid today,” O’Mara continued. “I’m not saying it’s an affirmative frontal lobe decision. But I will tell you it was a limbic system decision that had him pull out that gun because Sean was Black. That’s my thought. I’ve done this a long time. This is my life. This isn’t just a hobby. This is what I do.”

In addition to the two counts of aggravated assault on the law enforcement officers with a deadly weapon (his car), Grant is also charged one count of retail theft and one count of leaving the scene of a crash involving damage—when he hurriedly backed up before he sped off to get away from Santos’ bullets, Grant’s Honda hit the back of another car that was also exiting a parking space in front of the Racetrac in Deland.

After the shooting, the case was investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which cleared Santos, finding “that the outcome of the action taken by Officer Santos was consistent with the physical evidence and overall testimony.”

In addition, the office of State Attorney R.J. Larizza reviewed the case and decided that no action, such as charges against Santos, was warranted.

“They felt the shooting was appropriate, so I can’t help what a defense attorney says,” DeLand Police Chief Bill Ridgway told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “We don’t specifically train to shoot at moving vehicles. In fact, we discourage it unless it’s a last resort, which this was.”

Kitchen, the white man who happened to be getting a lift from Grant as a favor, filed a federal lawsuit in December, accusing the city of DeLand, the DeLand Police Department and Officer Santos of violating his Fourth, Fifth and 14th Amendment rights.

Kitchen’s lawsuit states that the tires on the Honda were always turned in a path leading out of the gas station.

Grant currently isn’t able to talk to the police or the city because he was charged with a felony. So his lawsuit can come only if O’Mara is able to get him acquitted.

“They have to defend the cop, that’s why they charged him [Grant],” O’Mara said. “This was an overreaction with the use of a firearm. And now the city is at risk for having put a bullet in a guy’s chest who is a passenger and another bullet ripping through a guy’s wrist and a cheek. So they’re going to protect their officers by charging a felony. They’re going to trial because they’d much rather have a jury say let him go then admit that it’s a bad shooting. They’re going to blame everything they can on Sean Grant although the only thing he did was steal a sandwich and a beer.”

O’Mara said this is the same police department that a month earlier made the national news when DeLand Police Officer James Harris killed a Black man, 38-year-old Marlon Robert Brown, by running him over in a field when the suspect tried to flee on foot after police attempted to pull him over for a seat belt violation. The video shows Harris drive around his fellow officers and speed towards Brown, nailing him with his car.

“I think he’s underneath the [expletive] car,” one of the officers can be heard saying in the video.

O’Mara also pointed out that Santos’ partner, officer Julian Rioz, didn’t even take his gun out of his holster.

O’Mara said his client is a “great kid.”

“He has no prior criminal record, he was working a good job in a tech type industry, engaged to a real nice lady named Dominique,” O’Mara said. “I’ve done this for 32 years and there’s a percentage of my clientele that have been through it before, and there’s a percentage of my clientele that live their lives being my clients. Sean Grant is not him. Sean was hanging out, a good guy, has a good job. He actually had this guy in the backseat because he met a buddy of his and this guy’s car broke down and he was giving the guy a ride. He did not deserve to get shot for stealing a sandwich and a beer. He didn’t deserve to get prosecuted because the cop overreacted. None of this should have happened.”

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/why-was-sean-grant-nearly-executed-for-stealing-a-sandwich-his-lawyer-says-its-all-about-race/feed/09 Things You Didn’t Know About the Mistreatment of Black People in Brazilhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/8-things-didnt-know-mistreatment-black-people-brazil/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/8-things-didnt-know-mistreatment-black-people-brazil/#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 14:00:21 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=231385With a Black population of 75 million, Brazil has the second highest number of Black people in the world after Nigeria. The country has long boasted that it is free of racism because of a “racial democracy” that doesn’t see and acknowledge skin color. But behind that myth, the real story is much different.

Police Killings of Black People Worse Than in U.S.

Though police killings of Black men have roiled the U.S. in recent months, the problem is actually much more rampant in Brazil. Brazilian police killed 2,212 people last year, according to a study by the Brazilian Forum of Public Safety, a national think tank, released last November. That’s an average of six a day. Between the Brazilian state and federal police violence, they have killed more Brazilians in the last five years (11,200) than did all U.S. police combined in the last 30 (11,090). The predominant targets of the Brazilian police are Black people. A 2009 study by economist Daniel Cerqueira found that twice as many Blacks as whites were victims of police violence. “Our police kill by the hundreds,” Ignacio Cano, a sociologist who specializes in the study of crime and police violence, told BloombergNews. “We have a Ferguson every day.”

Rocinha favela, Rio de Janeiro

Black Brazilians Consigned to the Slums

In the 2010 census, 51 percent of Brazilians defined themselves as Black or brown, while nearly half said they were white. The average income of whites is more than double that of Black or brown Brazilians. More than half the people in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (slums) are Black — while the comparable figure in the city’s richer districts is just 7 percent, according to TheEconomist. The favelas is where a large percentage of the police killings of Black people occur. Clearly, Brazilian society has been set up in a way that rewards white skin and punishes Blackness.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/8-things-didnt-know-mistreatment-black-people-brazil/feed/18Black People’s Mistrust of Banks Goes All The Way Back to the 1800shttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/black-peoples-mistrust-banks-goes-way-back-1800s/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/02/black-peoples-mistrust-banks-goes-way-back-1800s/#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 13:45:05 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232165The mistrust of banks and unwillingness many Black people—especially older folks—have about placing their money in them is not a new phenomenon. Not even close. Indeed, this position of wariness of financial institutions was spawned long ago, with the establishment of the first bank for Black people in the 1800s.

Less than a month before he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln signed the Freedman’s Bank Act that authorized the organization of a national bank for Black people recently freed from slavery—a grand notion in theory, but one that ended up costing many unsuspecting African-Americans their life savings.

The Freedman’s Bank grew rapidly, with 34 branches opening in 10 years with more than $3 million in assets. But on June 26, 1874, the bank closed amid controversy.

Six months prior to closing, the United States Congress approved the banking institution. A white northerner named John W. Alvord was the bank’s first president. He was a former minister and attaché to General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War.

He traveled throughout the South recruiting Blacks using endorsements from General OO Howard (the commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau) as an enticement. Alvord told them, “As an order from Howard … Negro soldiers should deposit their bounty money with him.”

A bank using the savings and income of Black depositors to advance the economic fortunes of whites was a major paradox—and a blueprint for swindling. Sure enough, corruption followed and the bank’s management was replaced with a variety of Black elites, most notably Frederick Douglass, who was appointed to head the bank in March of 1874.

These changes did not prevent the bank’s closing, with Douglass later describing the experience as being unwittingly “married to a corpse.”

By 1900 only $1,638,259.49, or 62 percent of the total amount of deposits prior to the bank’s failure, had been paid back to Black depositors. Deposits worth some $22 million of Black people’s money in today’s dollars were gone. In the end, most Black depositors lost their savings, receiving little to no money back from the bank or the federal government.

Today, there are just 19 Black-owned banks in the country, and almost 70 percent of them are in dire financial straits.

Vibrant financial institutions run by Black people are critical to fabric of communities. WEB DuBois and Booker T Washington did not agree on most, but they thought similarly about the pain the loss of Black banks delivered.

DuBois said: “Then in one sad day came the crash—all the hard-earned dollars of the freedmen disappeared; but that was the least of the loss—all the faith in saving went too, and much of the faith in men; and that was a loss that a nation which to-day sneers at Negro shiftlessness has never yet made good.”

Added Washington: “When they found out that they had lost, or been swindled out of all their savings, they lost faith in savings banks, and it was a long time after this before it was possible to mention a savings bank for Negroes without some reference being made to the disaster of [the Freedmen’s Bank].”

The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 7, Episode 15 airs tonight on Bravo.

Phaedra adjusts to life without her imprisoned husband. Meanwhile, Cynthia floors Claudia and Kenya with shocking news; Kandi considers going to marriage counseling; and tempers flare when the ladies try to reconnect over dinner.

The series delves into the lives of six sassy women from Atlanta’s social elite. Juggling families, careers and a packed personal calendar, the Real Housewives live their triumphs and frustrations out loud. Atlanta continues to be a character in itself as one of the hottest entertainment hubs in America. These driven and ambitious women prove that they’re not just Housewives, but entrepreneurs, doting mothers, and feisty Southern women.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 7 , episode 15 airs March 1 at 8 p.m. EST on Bravo.

The world we knew is gone. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months, society has crumbled. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living. Based on a comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, this AMC project focuses on the world after a zombie apocalypse. The series follows a police officer, Rick Grimes, who wakes up from a coma to find the world ravaged with zombies. Looking for his family, he and a group of survivors attempt to battle against the zombies in order to stay alive. The Walking Dead is an epic, edge-of-your-seat drama where personal struggles are magnified against a backdrop of moment-to-moment survival. A survivalist story at its core, the series explores how the living are changed by the overwhelming realization that those who survive can be far more dangerous than the mindless walkers roaming the earth. They themselves have become the walking dead.

The Walking Dead season 5, episode 12 airs March 1 at 9 p.m. EST on AMC.

Thicker Than Water: The Tankards Season 2, Episode 7 airs tonight on Bravo.

Jewel arranges a family trip to Austin to visit her sister. Elsewhere, Marcus mulls over leaving Murfreesboro, and Benji and Shanira settle into their new home.

Thicker Than Water follows Ben and Jewel Tankard with their blended family as they live, love and laugh through the perils and pleasures of life. Self-dubbed the “Black Brady Bunch,” this southern family integrates their strong religious conviction with their penchant for the finer things in life. Under the watchful eye of the patriarch and matriarch, the Tankard children, although grown-up, still live at home and must abide by Ben and Jewel’s rules. With the belief that “God wants us all to be millionaires,” the Tankards aim to be the best and brightest in everything they do. Along with their drive, comes a healthy dose of rivalry proving the adage, “You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family” especially true.

Thicker Than Water: The Tankards Season 2, Episode 7 airs March 1 at 9 pm EST on Bravo.

http://www.bravotv.com/thicker-than-water/videos

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/thicker-water-tankards-season-2-episode-7-tankard-road-diaries/feed/0‘Once Upon a Time’ Season 4, Episode 13: ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/upon-time-season-4-episode-13-darkness-edge-town/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/upon-time-season-4-episode-13-darkness-edge-town/#commentsSun, 01 Mar 2015 22:50:08 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232286

Once Upon a Time season 4, episode 13 airs tonight on ABC.

A banished Gold seeks allies, so he recruits Cruella De Vil to join him and Ursula. Meanwhile, Hook and Belle try to free the fairies from the Sorcerer’s hat; Henry and his mothers search for clues about the Author; and a darkness falls upon the town.

The show’s description reads:

“Once Upon a Time revolves around a bold, new imagining of the world, where fairy tales and modern-day events are about to collide. And they all lived happily ever after – or so everyone was led to believe. Emma Swan knows how to take care of herself. She’s a 28-year-old bail bonds collector who’s been on her own ever since she was abandoned as a baby. But when the son she gave up years ago finds her, everything starts to change. Henry is now 10 years old and in desperate need of Emma’s help. He believes that Emma actually comes from an alternate world and is the missing daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.

“According to his book of fairy tales, they sent her away to protect her from the Evil Queen’s curse, which trapped the fairy tale world forever, frozen in time, and brought them into our modern world. Of course, Emma doesn’t believe a word, but when she brings Henry back to Storybrooke, she finds herself drawn to this unusual boy and his strange New England town. Concerned for Henry, she decides to stay for a while, but she soon suspects that Storybrooke is more than it seems. It’s a place where magic has been forgotten but is still powerfully close; where fairy tale characters are alive, even though they don’t remember who they once were. Emma will have to accept her destiny and fight for everything that once was.”

Once Upon a Time season 4, episode 12 airs March 1 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC. Spoiler video below:

Trouble arises at Kaan and Associates when payment is not received from a consult. Meanwhile, Clyde gets a visit from his estranged father; Marty learns of Roscoe’s entrepreneurial endeavors; and Jeannie pushes back to stay.

Charming, fast-talking Marty Kaan and his crack team of MBA-toting management consultants are playing America’s 1 percent for everything they’ve got. They put the con in consulting as they charm smug, unsuspecting corporate fat cats into closing huge deals, and spending a fortune for their services. Twisting the facts, spinning the numbers, and spouting just enough business school jargon to dazzle the clients, there’s no end to what this crew won’t do to and for each other, while laughing all the way to the bank. Starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell, nothing is sacred in HOUSE OF LIES, a hilarious, irreverent send-up of corporate America today. Based on the book “House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Tell You the Time” by Martin Kihn.

House of Lies Season 4, Episode 7 airs March 1 at 10 pm EST on Showtime.

In the Season 1 finale, an epic family feud forces Christina to cut the camping trip she planned short. Once back in L.A., she continues to focus on her career. Meanwhile, Danielle’s husband Richard tries to get their marriage back on track by surprising her with a grand gesture.

As part of this loud, loving, opinionated and multi-talented Cuban-American family, Christina Milian has always been the focus, often to the consternation of her two sisters, Danielle and Lizzy. Now, Christina is learning how to share the spotlight, and this all-new E! docu series Christina Milian Turned Up, follows Christina as she reinvigorates her music career with a new label, a new sound and a new look, all while raising her young daughter Violet with help from mom Carmen and sisters Danielle and Lizzy. This season is all about family when middle-sister Danielle tries to balance a new marriage and motherhood; baby sister Lizzy begins a new chapter as a trained culinary chef and converts to Orthodox Judaism, and Carmen attempts to find a happy medium managing Christina’s professional life while keeping a very close watch over her entire family.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/christina-milian-turned-season-1-episode-6-milian-emotions/feed/0Lesotho Awaits Results From Recently Held General Electionshttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/lesotho-awaits-results-recently-held-general-elections/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/lesotho-awaits-results-recently-held-general-elections/#commentsSun, 01 Mar 2015 21:00:37 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232291
Vote counting is under way in Lesotho, the tiny African enclave surrounded by South Africa, where voters cast ballots for a new National Assembly and prime minister in snap elections.

Saturday’s election, two years earlier than scheduled, followed an attempted coup in August that forced Prime Minister Thomas Thabane to flee. The attempt took place after Thabane sought to replace the army’s top commander, said to be an ally of Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing.

Thabane is now back at home in the capital, Maseru, hoping to return to office after votes are counted. But he told VOA on Saturday, while appearing in his home district of Abia, that he still feared for his life.

Thabane was flanked by heavily armed security guards, and sniffer dogs swept the area before he voted.

Three parties were jostling for control of the government: Thabane’s All Basotho Convention, the main opposition Democratic Congress and the Lesotho Congress for Democracy.

Thabane has presided over a tripartite coalition government, the first of its kind in the country’s history. However, discord within the coalition built rapidly when Thabane declared a 10-month suspension of parliament in June. The declaration came after the opposition tried to pass a motion of no-confidence that would have ousted the prime minister.

In an interview with VOA in Maseru, Thabane said he closed parliament because “there was definitely a conspiracy to have a regime change within parliament. … I could have hung on and struggled on, but I thought, ‘Let’s go back to the people.’ So I have risked my own position. I still had some time as prime minister.”

Metsing, also running for the prime minister position, told VOA it was a mistake for his LCD party to have entered into a coalition government with Thabane’s ABC.

Metsing said that “we differed with ABC on so many issues. … Today, we are aware that we made mistakes.” He said now his party “would like to ensure that we can grow the economy. We would address aggressively the issue of youth unemployment, because I think that it is a time bomb waiting to explode.”

Former Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of the main opposition Democratic Congress was also running for the country’s top post against Thabane and Metsing.

The Southern African Development Community brokered an agreement with Lesotho’s coalition parties to end the suspension of parliament in order to hold the snap election.

Recent conversations about the TV landscape are applauding the industry for finally welcoming more Black faces in prime-time television, but the mere presence of more Black faces is not the key to adding more diversity in mainstream media. Just as Black casts become more diverse, Black stories must diversify as well.

Despite a whitewashed Oscars ceremony, many have argued that the future looks promising for Black talent and Black stories in mainstream media.

In the world of problem-solving Olivia Popes and soul-searching news-anchoring Mary Janes, Black men and Black women just can’t seem to love one another.

Two of today’s top-rated shows with Black leading ladies, How to Get Away With Murder and Scandal, feature the strong Black female characters in relationships with white men.

BET’s Being Mary Jane follows Gabrielle Union’s character as she embarks on a quest to find love, but still remains largely focused on her inability to do so.

The Game, which features a Black ensemble cast engulfed in the dramas that come with love, money and fame, has been a rare exception to the rule, although the show’s ratings have been unsteady and have tapered off significantly since the show’s first season.

“The Game”

ABC’s Black-ish brings a happily married Black couple, portrayed by Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson, to the forefront, but it is also a sitcom focused on family as opposed to a true love story.

The dearth of true Black love stories is a problem that has persisted despite decades of both Black stars and Black consumers voicing their frustrations with Hollywood’s refusal to present a dynamic love story between a Black woman and a Black man.

Denene Millner, a New York Times best-selling author and one of the brilliant women behind the novel that inspired the Lifetime film With This Ring, recalled being a part of the conversation years ago when ER’s Eriq La Salle openly discussed his frustrations with writers giving him a white love interest rather than a Black one.

“He was upset that they had written a love interest for him and made his love interest white,” Millner recalled. “He was insistent that it was unfair that he couldn’t, on this television show, love a Black woman.”

At the time, the typical demographics for Black characters in TV relationships paired a Black man with a white woman while Black women remained largely unloved and uninvolved in mainstream media’s tales of romance.

“Black women never had love interests,” Millner added. “They were the best friend, the straight-talking girlfriend who got her white friends together. She was the super-smart person, the judge.”

On television, a Black woman was more likely to be many things before she was likely to be “desirable.”

As the media landscape evolved over the next 20 years, many things would change.

More Black talent would be creating content as well as acting in it. Strong Black women would finally be given love interests. Black characters were finally taking on lead roles. Still, however, the Black love story seems to be tucked away in the shadows.

Millner added that while How to Get Away With Murder’s Professor Annalise Keating, played by Viola Davis, has an intimate relationship with detective Nate Lahey, played by Billy Brown, he is still a “side piece” while Keating’s husband is white.

“I want to see two Black people on television loving one another, going through the drama of falling in love, figuring out how to negotiate love and going through some things and figuring out how to make it work again,” she added. “That just does not exist.”

“How to Get Away With Murder”

That unquenched thirst in the Black community is a part of the reasonWith This Ring was able to quickly soar to the top of TV ratings when it aired on Lifetime, earning the title of the highest-rated cable program of the night.

“[With This Ring] was just a really great movie overall,” said Alisica Ray, a 22-year-old avid Scandal watcher who has also been troubled by the lack of Black love on television. “I think the fact that it was a love story with all these Black people just made it even better. I don’t think we get to see that a lot.”

Ray pointed out that she personally has no problem with Scandal’s Olivia Pope falling in love with a white man but instead insisted that it’s the “lack of the other” that makes a lot of viewers weary of the relationship.

“I don’t think the interracial relationships are the real problem,” she said. “It’s the lack of the other, the lack of the Black couple also. I shouldn’t be struggling to even think of a prominent Black couple on TV right now that isn’t trying to kill each other or sabotage each other or just being nasty to each other.”

She pointed out that it’s an inevitable problem, however, when “people only allow Black people on TV to be a certain thing.”

In Hollywood, where money has long reigned as the ultimate decision maker, this insatiable thirst for Black love stories may not seem quite as glaringly obvious as it is to the consumers who tune in every night hoping to see a couple on television who’s a little more representative of the interactions in their community.

As Millner explained, Black voices urging for a love story is one thing, getting Black viewers to actually support a Black love story is a completely different feat.

“I think what fails to be mentioned here is that when Love Jones, The Best Man and Love and Basketball were in the movies in the ’90s, nobody went to see them,” Millner said. “Black folks did not support those movies. They’re legendary now and they’ve made huge strides in the DVD and video circuit, but when they were in the movies they were considered failures. … We didn’t go to support them.”

“With This Ring”

That has left many Hollywood executives feeling hesitant about just how successful a Black love story could really be on any platform in mainstream media when success is counted by viewers and ratings rather than think pieces and hashtags.

Millner urges creatives in Hollywood to focus on crafting a genuine love story that is appropriate for today’s generation of viewers as they try to crack the code to getting the Black love story in mainstream media.

With many Black women getting married later in life, it isn’t likely that wedding films could have a substantial amount of success with the coveted millennial viewers who haven’t even started thinking about marriage just yet.

But just because viewers aren’t necessarily craving to see church pews and white gowns as the center of their love stories doesn’t mean the Black youth aren’t hopeful that Black love will make a major TV debut.

“When you look at the things we digest and take in, you know, the things we consume, it’s very often a story of lust,” Ray added. “… I don’t think we really want that. I think we’re afraid to say we want to see [love]. I think younger people, coming from these different circumstances, I think we’re a little more afraid of a real love story and we don’t even really understand it. That doesn’t mean we don’t want it or want to see it but it just has to actually feel real to us … it has to be this nontraditional, emotional, nail-biting love story that just so happens to be between a Black man and a Black woman. We need to see that.”

So with the vast majority of Black men of all ages dating and marrying Black women, which was confirmed in a study conducted by Howard and Morehouse researchers, Black love is not by any means a mythical creature — seeing Black love on TV is.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/hollywood-struggles-commit-black-love-stories-even-prime-time-welcomes-diverse-casts/feed/3Adrian Peterson’s Ready To Ditch Bad Father Label And Resume Being Best Running Back In NFLhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/adrian-petersons-ready-ditch-bad-father-label-resume-best-running-back-nfl/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/adrian-petersons-ready-ditch-bad-father-label-resume-best-running-back-nfl/#commentsSun, 01 Mar 2015 17:00:30 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232218There was a time, not that long ago, when Adrian Peterson was considered the best running back in the NFL. Now, he’s known the player who disciplined his young son with a tree switch.

Hopefully, through all the turmoil, court appearances and heaps of bad publicity, Peterson has become a better father, one who, first of all, takes a more active role in his children’s lives and, second, figures another way to exact punishment.

He says he has. After a judge overturned his suspension last week, a victory he desperately needed after so many losses—of his team, his income for the season and his reputation—Peterson issued a statement that, hopefully, spoke to his mindset.

“I was pleased to learn about [U.S. District] Judge [David] Doty’s decision,” the statement said. “It is a positive step in protecting players’ rights and preserving due process for all players.”

That was important to Peterson as he tries to find a team; it appears there is some animosity between player and the Minnesota Vikings, where Peterson performed brilliantly. But the heart of his position came in the second half of the statement, which read:

“As I prepare for my return to football, I am still focused on my family and continue to work to become a better father every day.”

We can only believe Peterson is sincere. It will be virtually impossible to quantify if he learned something about fatherhood through this fiasco. But if he has any scruples whatsoever, he has probably overdosed on fatherly advice from friends and strangers alike.

He has endured the repercussions of his violent reaction to his child, from the NFL and the public. It’s time for Peterson, who turns 30 in three weeks, to get back to football.

But no one is sure when the legal part of this will be over. The NFL, which said it disagreed with Doty’s ruling and will appeal it, put Peterson on the commissioner’s exempt list, making him ineligible to play or participate in team activities until his legal proceedings have run their course. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had suspended Peterson until at least April 15.

“Judge Doty’s order did not contain any determinations concerning the fairness of the appeals process under the CBA [collective bargaining agreement], including the commissioner’s longstanding authority to appoint a designee to act as hearing officer,” the NFL’s statement said.

The time to judge him as a father has expired. Peterson has suffered enough and should be allowed to once again don an NFL uniform.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/adrian-petersons-ready-ditch-bad-father-label-resume-best-running-back-nfl/feed/1States Try to Improve the Reliability of Eyewitness Identifications, A Process That Wrongly Sends Many Black Men to Prisonhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/states-try-to-improve-the-reliability-of-eyewitness-identifications-a-process-that-wrongly-sends-many-black-men-to-prison/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/states-try-to-improve-the-reliability-of-eyewitness-identifications-a-process-that-wrongly-sends-many-black-men-to-prison/#commentsSun, 01 Mar 2015 15:00:52 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232272

Ronald Cotton poses with Jennifer Thompson, who wrongly accused him of raping her

For years, lawyers have been aware of the unreliability of eyewitness identifications in criminal prosecutions, particularly when the identification involved white people identifying Black people. But despite the unreliability, they continued to be the foundation of far too many criminal prosecutions and, as a result, sent many thousands of Black men to prison.

But finally, states across the U.S. have begun to back away from the heavy reliance on eyewitness identifications, adding layers of safeguards into the system to significantly improve the chances that criminal victims are identifying the actual perpetrators of crimes—rather than someone who just happens to be the same race.

The danger of cross-racial identity is at the heart of a case explored by the Wall Street Journal involving a white woman, Jennifer Thompson, who wrongly identified a Black man, Ronald Cotton, who she said raped her in 1984. Her mistake sent Cotton to prison for nearly 11 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Because of her personal horror over the mistake she made, Thompson has become a national advocate for changing eyewitness identification procedures.

“The rape was awful. It was a nightmare,” said Ms. Thompson, now 52, who shared her story last month in testimony before the Colorado state legislature. “But learning that I identified the wrong person was the worst thing that I had ever gone through.”

Thompson and Cotton published a book about their ordeal in 2010 called Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption.

The National Conference of State Legislatures told the Journal that about a dozen states have put laws on the books laying out written procedures that add safeguards to the process for handling eyewitness identifications.

States such as New Mexico, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Missouri and Georgia, in addition to Colorado, are also considering similar legislation. Colorado’s version would require state law-enforcement agencies to inform eyewitnesses that the suspect they are being asked to identify might not be in the live lineup or photo array they are examining. It would also require that identification lineups be conducted by someone who doesn’t know the identity of the suspect, so that person doesn’t influence the witness. This is called a blind procedure, which the Journal says is the basis for most of the changes being implemented.

“When you have an eyewitness to a crime, it is important that the process you follow be as minimally suggestive as possible,” Georgia state Sen. Charlie Bethel, a Republican who has introduced a measure requiring a blind administrator in live lineups, told the Journal.

In a report released in October, the National Academy of Sciences strongly recommended that states implement “double blind” procedures for eyewitness identification, in addition to videotaping the identification and documenting the witness’ level of confidence in the veracity of the identification.

“Eyewitness identification can be a powerful tool,” the report said. “As this report indicates, however, the malleable nature of human visual perception, memory, and confidence; the imperfect ability to recognize individuals; and policies governing law enforcement procedures can result in mistaken identifications with significant consequences. New law enforcement training protocols, standardized procedures for administering lineups, improvements in the handling of eyewitness identification in court, and better data collection and research on eyewitness identification can improve the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.”

Curiously, though race is an enormous factor in the unreliability of eyewitness identifications, the Journal never mentions race in its story—even while the story centers around the case of a white woman wrongly identifying a Black man. Race continues to be a huge blind spot in the journalism practiced by America’s mainstream media.

According to the Innocence Project, eyewitness misidentification plays a role in nearly 75 percent of convictions overturned through DNA testing, making it the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions in the nation. In 2014, the Innocence Project saw its number of exonerations of innocent defendants jump to 125 from 34 in 2013. The Innocence Project reports that 67 percent of the exonerated men it had a hand in getting released were Black.

When researchers have conducted controlled experiments to test the accuracy of eyewitness identifications, they have found that eyewitnesses incorrectly identify strangers at about the same rate as they identify them correctly—a horrifying finding. Significantly adding to the problem is the fact that people are much more likely to misidentify a stranger of another race. And according to researchers, white people appear to have an especially hard time correctly identifying Black people, which is a chilling finding for Black males, considering how heavily the system still relies on eyewitness identification to send Black men to jail.

Melissa Zak, chief of the University of Colorado Boulder police, speaking on behalf of the state’s police-chiefs association, told the Journal that eyewitnesses and victims faced “insurmountable” pressure to pick a suspect out of a lineup, so it was important to remove that pressure from the identification process.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/01/states-try-to-improve-the-reliability-of-eyewitness-identifications-a-process-that-wrongly-sends-many-black-men-to-prison/feed/1Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam is Quickly Approaching ‘Mega City’ Statushttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/tanzanias-dar-es-salaam-quickly-approaching-mega-city-status/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/tanzanias-dar-es-salaam-quickly-approaching-mega-city-status/#commentsSat, 28 Feb 2015 21:00:11 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232222In 1957, in the waning years of British colonial rule, the then-unremarkable port city of Dar es Salaam sat on the coast of present-day Tanzania. It boasted a meager population of 128,000. Its humidity was relentless. Africa’s independence era was getting underway, and many of Dar’s neighboring cities had far glitzier exteriors with more modern infrastructure. Maputo, the capital of Mozambique to the south, would become known as “The Pearl of the Indian Ocean.” Nairobi, 560 miles north in Kenya, would be referred to as “The London of Africa.” Dar es Salaam, meanwhile, struggled to shake the English translation of its name—”the residence of peace.” Tranquil, yet stagnant.

But recent years have brought unimaginable growth and change to Dar es Salaam. In terms of annual population growth, it’s on pace to be Africa’s fastest growing urban center. Its total population—currently about 4.1 million people—is expected to expand by more than 85 percent through 2025, according to the African Development Bank, and could reach 21.4 million people by 2052. It’s likely to achieve “megacity” status—10 million residents or more—by the early 2030s.

To put that expansion in context: New York City added roughly 4 million residents over the past 100 years. Dar es Salaam will add 21 million over a similar span.

Although huge, this staggering growth is not a complete surprise. CityLab has written about sub-Saharan Africa’s other mushrooming cities. Tanzania is already one of Africa’s most populated nations. By 2020, according to the U.N., Africa will become the most rapidly urbanizing region of the world. Dar es Salaam is at the epicenter of a perfect storm of demographic change: A cosmopolitan city in a population-rich country amid unprecedented regional urbanization.

In other ways, the rise of Dar es Salaam is remarkable. For decades, urban development was actively discouraged by the state. City life, and its perceived individualism, was viewed with contempt by many of the country’s socialist ideologues.

During the two-decade rule of Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere, Tanzanians were encouraged—or forcibly sent, in extreme cases—to live and work in rural villages. Under the title ujamaa, meaning “socialism” in Swahili, the nationwide farming program became Nyerere’s most ambitious social program (it was structured partially after policies in Maoist China). Still, Tanzanians continued to arrive in Dar es Salaam seeking a more prosperous future. This prompted the government to go even further to quash rural-to-urban migration.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/tanzanias-dar-es-salaam-quickly-approaching-mega-city-status/feed/0Lee Daniels Doesn’t Want to Take on Racism in Hollywood, But Has No Problem Accusing Black Community of Homophobiahttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/lee-daniels-doesnt-want-to-take-on-racism-in-hollywood-but-has-no-problem-accusing-black-community-of-homophobia/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/lee-daniels-doesnt-want-to-take-on-racism-in-hollywood-but-has-no-problem-accusing-black-community-of-homophobia/#commentsSat, 28 Feb 2015 19:00:20 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232150In the midst of his discussions about whether actress/comedian Mo’Nique was truly “blackballed” for her refusal to participate in the Hollywood game while campaigning for the film Precious, director Lee Daniels made extremely revealing comments about how much he is willing to close his eyes to racism in order to succeed in his industry.

But his unwillingness to confront racism on behalf of his people stands in stark contrast to previous comments he has made attacking the entire Black community for close-mindedness in not accepting homosexuality.

During an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, Daniels discussed the brewing controversy over comments he made to Mo’Nique, who has drawn a flood of media coverage after saying Daniels told her she was “blackballed” in Hollywood because of her behavior during the Oscar campaign for Precious. But in the process, Daniels revealed his painfully hollow feelings on race.

“We were on the [press] campaign and she was making unreasonable demands…she wasn’t thinking, and this is where reverse racism, I think, happens,” Daniels said. “I said, ‘You have to thank the producers of the film, you have to thank the studio,’ and I think she didn’t understand that. And I said, ‘Listen, people aren’t going to respond well if you don’t.”

His use of the term “reverse racism” was odd, as if he was somehow implying that the power in the situation resided with Mo’Nique rather than with the studios that have dictated her fate.

“I love her, and I’ve spoken to her. And she’s brilliant, and I like working with brilliant people,” he continued. “But sometimes artists get in their own way — I know I certainly do often. I have my own demons that I get in front of myself…”

Daniels said in order to make it in his business “you gotta play ball.”

“This is not just show. It’s show business and you gotta play ball. I don’t like calling the race card. I don’t believe in it, because if I buy into it then it becomes ‘real.’ If I knew what I knew when I was 21, I wouldn’t be where I’m at right now.”

“Some people call that selling out,” Lemon pointed out.

“I guess I’m a sell out then. Call it what it is, but I’m not going to not work, not going to not tell my truth, not going to not call people on their bull. Call it what it is. And see you in theaters.”

His implication was that those who complain about racism in Hollywood are just creating distractions that keep them from working—if they would just shut up and keep their head down, then the white people might throw them some bones. It is precisely the sort of attitude that invades insider industries like Hollywood, where a Black artist is allowed inside the door but is then afraid to make waves that might result in other Black artists coming through the door behind him. Daniels is clearly not interested in making any demands on Hollywood that might endanger his insider status.

This was a premise thoroughly explored in the seminal 1969 novel and film, The Spook Who Sat By The Door, about how white industries will hire a Black token to quiet dissent. But what’s curious about Daniels’ reluctance to speak on racism in Hollywood, this refusal to “play the race card,” is that he has no compunction about turning around and attacking the Black community for its so-called “homophobia,” which he claims is “killing” Black women.

“When I did Precious I had to do research on AIDS in the ’80s so I went to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis Center in New York City, and I expected to see gay men, and there were nothing but African-American women and babies with HIV. And that blew me away,” Daniels said last month in a room full of white TV critics during a panel discussion about his extremely successful TV show Empire.

Daniels said this was because of the “rampant” homophobia in the Black community, which he said forces Black men to secretly engage in gay sex to avoid being stigmatized.

“Homophobia is rampant in the African-American community, and men are on the DL. They don’t come out, because your priest says, your pastor says, mama says, your next-door neighbor says, your homie says, your brother says, your boss says [that homosexuality is wrong],” Daniels said. “And they are killing African-American women. They are killing our women. So I wanted to blow the lid off more on homophobia in my community.”

In this line of thinking, the problem is the mindset of the Black community—rather than the Black men choosing to be dishonest about their sexual preference and subsequently spreading disease to Black women. Daniels sees no benefit to calling out Hollywood for its treatment of Black people, while at the same time showing a painful lack of sophistication in his public comments about his own community.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/lee-daniels-doesnt-want-to-take-on-racism-in-hollywood-but-has-no-problem-accusing-black-community-of-homophobia/feed/28Vince Young Has Not Given Up on NFL Career After All; Will Participate in Veterans Combinehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/vince-young-not-given-nfl-career-will-participate-veterans-combine/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/vince-young-not-given-nfl-career-will-participate-veterans-combine/#commentsSat, 28 Feb 2015 17:00:35 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232212Believe it or not, Vince Young is only 31. He has not suffered any major injuries, any physical injuries, that is. He has every reason to believe he can make it back to the NFL as a quarterback.

That’s why he, after saying he had given up on a return last season, has apparently reversed himself and has signed up for the league’s new veteran combine on March 22.

A look around the NFL makes one wonder how Young is not in the NFL. He has size, arm strength, mobility and experience. A closer looks sees backup QBs that hardly bring what Young could to a team.

How did the No. 3 pick in the 2006 draft end up so out of the mix?

His head. Not that he could not think the game; Young could. But once his confidence faded, it was hard to recover.

Still, Young showed in the Cleveland Browns’ camp last year that he’s better than the likes of Christian Ponder, Zach Mettenberger, Charlie Whitehurst and Brandon Weedan, among others. All those less than ordinary players picked up NFL paychecks last season while Young sat at home. Again.

Young last took a regular-season snap with the Eagles during the 2011 season. He latched on with the Buffalo Bills, the Green Bay Packers and the Browns over the past three years. He was released in each case in favor of players with no clear-cut skill advantage.

The rejection left Young dejected. He already had become borderline depressed about his playing status and became a laughingstock when word spread that he had blown all the millions he made from his contracts with the Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles.

Last June, after being released by the Browns, he told an Austin, Texas TV station that he considered himself retired. He didn’t mean it, though. If he did, he would not have said that he would attempt to comeback if there was an “ideal” situation for him.

“It’s definitely official I think in my book,” he said then. “Unless we get a great opportunity, something guaranteed…other than that I’ve started moving forward in some things. I love the NFL, will love the game always but I’m kind of moving forward and moving on right now.”

It was a premature position. And it’s a good thing that the NFL created this veteran combine and that Young sees the value in using it to his advantage.

Think about it: Young flashed playmaking ability in the NFL and won the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year award in ’06. But he never maxed out his potential. He went the other way, in fact, based primarily on not bouncing back from a confidence crisis. That is a legit concern—the QB has to believe he can direct the team. Other quarterbacks with less talent and who accomplished less in the league remained on NFL rosters. Hard to say it was fair or unfair. But it was curious.

In any case, many teams need quarterbacks now, and Young, hopefully, is desperate enough to work harder than he ever has and still talented enough—and able to impress with that talent—to earn another spot on a team.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/vince-young-not-given-nfl-career-will-participate-veterans-combine/feed/3Discriminatory Public Transportation Systems Are Yet Another Way America Is Damaging the Black Communityhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/discriminatory-public-transportation-systems-yet-another-way-america-damaging-black-community/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/discriminatory-public-transportation-systems-yet-another-way-america-damaging-black-community/#commentsSat, 28 Feb 2015 15:00:33 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232169One small community that rests in the shadow of the Peace Bridge is suffering from the detrimental effects of racism that have plagued many communities just like it. As the nation has seen with everything from environmental racism to the wave of school closings in predominantly Black neighborhoods,Black communities are often left without a voice when it comes to what will happen in their own backyards — and matters of transportation are no exception.

The Peace Bridge is one of the busiest bridges in the country, connecting Fort Erie in Canada to Buffalo, New York, and serving as a major passage for trucks making international deliveries.

Roughly 15,000 vehicles can be spotted driving back and forth across the bridge every day, according to a report by Slate. The massive vehicles pump out extremely harmful diesel emissions and tarnish the air quality of the surrounding area — an area that many low-income and Black families call home.

A small neighborhood called West Side lies close to the busy bridge, putting its residents directly in the path of the harmful side effects that come with poor air quality.

In addition to a variety of reported health issues plaguing the community, Slate reports that the asthma rate is more than four times greater in the small neighborhood than the national average.

One resident even wore an air monitor that was funded through an Environmental Protection Agency grant in order to quantify just how serious the air pollution problem was for the neighborhood.

The device collected “more than 1.8 times the EPA recommended limit of particle pollutants” in the only eight hours that the resident had on the device.

In just that short amount of time, it was clear that something was wrong.

“According to the EPA’s standards, the recommended limit on particle pollutants should not be ‘exceeded more than once per year on average over 3 years,’ ” Slate added.

All of the numbers and stats proved what people within the community knew all along — in America, even the transportation system takes aim at Black people.

It’s a fact that is also a part of American history.

Transportation has long been one of the many industries that discriminates against Black people.

The government has an extensive history of funding massive transportation projects that demolish predominantly Black communities or have segregated street cars, trolleys and buses.

While we are no longer in the days of using separate bathrooms and drinking out of different water fountains, it seems Black communities have gone from sitting in the back of the bus, to barely having a bus to sit on at all.

The government has had no problem funding major bridges and new highways that cater to those who are fortunate enough to have a car. These projects often benefit middle class to upper class white Americans, but very few funds have been dedicated to creating safe and efficient public transit.

Money is being allocated to make transportation more convenient for those who are wealthy while leaving the most vulnerable and less fortunate Americans, often Black people, stranded in their now pollution-filled neighborhoods.

Experts say it’s the difference between blatant racism that forbids Black people from being in the same space as white people and the type of subtle racism that provides Black people with significantly poorer quality of services.

“Discrimination in transportation, quite often it’s more subtle today,” Robert Bullard, dean of Texas Southern University’s school of public affairs, told Slate. “We don’t have laws about posting signs for whites and coloreds. We don’t have laws segregating people on buses and trains … [but] if you look at quality of service, efficiency of service, look at amenities attached to suburban rail versus inner-city bus lines, it’s like night and day.”

It’s the type of stark contrast that has drawn the attention of many advocacy groups, including the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York.

The group filed a Title VI complaint against the currently proposed expansion of the Peace Bridge, a project that would only further degrade the lives of the residents living in communities around the bridge.

A Title VI complaint would strip a project of its federal funding if it is indeed found to be discriminatory based on race, color or national origin, regardless of whether the discrimination was intentional or not.

It is one of the strongest weapons for communities of color trying to fight back against the government-funded projects that are tearing their communities apart — or at least it used to be.

As low-income Black communities were already struggling with the severe lack of efficient bus routes and safe public transportation, the courts eventually took away the best weapon they had to push for equality.

“In 2001, the Supreme Court dramatically changed the way advocates could use Title VI,” Slate reports. “In the case Alexander v. Sandoval, the court altered the standard, concluding that an individual had to prove the policy was intended to cause discrimination, a much higher bar to prove.”

This means it’s no longer enough to prove that the construction of a massive bridge would dump harmful pollutants into a predominantly Black neighborhood. Residents now had to prove the bridge was built with the intention to do so.

The countless number of Louisiana residents who have yet to see public bus routes return to their neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina could not simply prove that the lack of bus routes was detrimental to the growth of their community and livelihood. They now had to prove that the government was snatching the money away from bus projects with the sole intention of distributing that money to street cars for middle-class white citizens.

It’s a legal move that is making it close to impossible for Black communities to fight back when they find themselves struggling with the impact of discrimination in the transportation sector.

A disproportionately higher number of Black citizens rely on public transportation that is not only present in their neighborhood but also connects them to areas where they may possibly find work or other economic opportunities.

The fact that federal funding seems to be valuing “commuters over community,” as Slate reported, is part of the many ways America’s institutions and policies are trapping Black communities in poverty.

So as these predominantly Black communities are left with massive bridges bringing pollution to their neighborhoods, they are also battling with disparities in health care that are preventing them from getting any real help for these problems. And this is all while they are unable to change their financial situation as they have no way to get to and from the potential jobs that lie just outside the reach of the current, inefficient public transportation systems.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/28/discriminatory-public-transportation-systems-yet-another-way-america-damaging-black-community/feed/1Martin Luther King’s Niece Responds to Louis Farrakhan and Melissa Harris-Perry About Racism in America, but Are Her Comments Naive?http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/martin-luther-kings-niece-responds-to-louis-farrakhan-and-melissa-harris-perry-about-racism-in-america-but-are-her-comments-naive/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/martin-luther-kings-niece-responds-to-louis-farrakhan-and-melissa-harris-perry-about-racism-in-america-but-are-her-comments-naive/#commentsSat, 28 Feb 2015 00:44:07 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232126Video by Newsmax TV
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/martin-luther-kings-niece-responds-to-louis-farrakhan-and-melissa-harris-perry-about-racism-in-america-but-are-her-comments-naive/feed/43‘Through the African American Lens’ Reveals How Photography Didn’t Just Capture Black Culture, It Was a Powerful Part of Ithttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/african-american-lens-reveals-photography-didnt-just-capture-black-culture-powerful-part/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/african-american-lens-reveals-photography-didnt-just-capture-black-culture-powerful-part/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 22:30:45 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232013When people think of artistic mediums that had a major impact on Black culture and helped provide a platform for Black voices, they may first imagine the musical sensation that was hip-hop or dwell on the beautifully crafted words of some of history’s most influential Black authors. While photography may not be the first medium to come to mind, however, a new book and upcoming exhibit aim to prove just how meaningful photography really was to Black culture and Black history.

Through the African American Lens is a new book and also the title of a new exhibit that will open at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Both the book and the exhibit are aiming to bring the importance of photography in Black culture and shaping Black history to a new light. Iconic images of Black people throughout history have captured key moments in Black culture, powerful moments of activism and helped create a more complete story of the community’s ongoing fight for equality.

“The book essentially reflects the vastness and the dynamism that is the subject matter of the museum,” said Rhea Combs, curator of film and photography at the museum, according to Time.

Combs served as the head of the daunting task of selecting only 60 iconic photographs out of the 15,000 images that were available to use in the book.

The images themselves harness much artistic value, but Combs explains that the power of the photographs goes beyond their visual appeal. Photography was yet another creative platform Black people used as a way of “inserting themselves into a conversation” in a society that “oftentimes dismissed them or discounted them.”

“There is a real, conscientious effort with individuals that are standing in front of the camera to present themselves in a way that shows regality, a fortitude, a resolve,” she added, much like the dapper Black gentlemen in one photo that captures a candid moment from the Great Migration. In fact, she says, Frederick Douglass always made sure he approved of any photos that were taken of him before they were distributed.

White photographers were also a part of a movement that helped change Black culture through photography. White abolitionists were also known to use the medium to capture the atrocities of slavery in order to persuade more white people to change their perspectives.

“During the mid-nineteenth century, abolitionists mailed out photographs of slaves in an effort to change hearts and minds on the matter of abolition,” Time reported.

Sifting through such a wide array of photos captured by both Black and white photographers made it difficult to narrow the selection down in a way that would broadly capture what the medium was able to do for the Black community. That limitation is why the book will continue on in a series that will feature more tailored subject matters for each new release.

According to Combs, seeing the images of the past, including one of Emmett Till’s mother at her son’s funeral grasping a handkerchief as tears streamed down her cheek, is another indication of why the push for equality is just as prevalent today.

The images of Till’s mother, mourning the loss of her son who was the victim of an unspeakably brutal and racist attack, looks all too similar to images that have been captured of Black mothers today who have lost their sons to police brutality.

“Especially on the heels of things that are happening now, this story unfortunately — how many years later — feels very, very familiar,” Combs added.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/african-american-lens-reveals-photography-didnt-just-capture-black-culture-powerful-part/feed/2‘Empire’ Producer Lee Daniels Just Explained Why He’s Happy to Be a ‘Sell-Out’ in Hollywoodhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/empire-producer-lee-daniels-just-explained-why-hes-happy-to-be-a-sell-out-in-hollywood/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/empire-producer-lee-daniels-just-explained-why-hes-happy-to-be-a-sell-out-in-hollywood/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 21:00:50 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232123Video by CNN
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/empire-producer-lee-daniels-just-explained-why-hes-happy-to-be-a-sell-out-in-hollywood/feed/105As Hip Hop Legends Are Shunned By Mainstream Media, Corporate Greed Steps Up As the New King of the Rap Gamehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/hip-hop-legends-shunned-mainstream-media-corporate-greed-steps-new-king-rap-game/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/hip-hop-legends-shunned-mainstream-media-corporate-greed-steps-new-king-rap-game/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 21:00:10 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232144With the hip hop industry today largely dominated by content laced with an obsession for money, fame, sex and drugs, it has become incredibly easy to forget about the once historic roots of hip hop culture. But as hip hop heads continue discussing the responsibility weighing on the shoulders of individual rappers, many would argue that the conversation about mainstream media and corporate greed is just as important, if not even more vital, to finding the key to saving hip hop.

As hip hop veteran Q-Tip once explained, “Hip hop is an artistic and socio-political movement/culture that sprang from the disparate ghettos of NY in the early 70’s coming off the heels of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT” and served as a “way for [Black people] to [exhale], to scream, to dance, to laugh and find OUR VOICE.”

During a time when the movement for equality and justice within the Black community needed a stage, hip hop proved to be just that.

It was powerful. It was unapologetic. It was legendary.

It was not, apparently, unforgettable.

Over the years the once passionately rebellious musical genre has been transformed and shifted away from its indignant roots.

In order to break through the seemingly impenetrable barriers of mainstream media, hip hop stars would become the latest victims of corporate greed that would eventually work to devalue Black art.

The once booming, thunderous voices of the historic genre would be muted by mainstream culture and reduced to nothing more than a timid whisper being washed away in the sounds of trend-driven, misogynistic, disingenuous white noise.

Rather than focusing on an agenda, the genre has become obsessed with dollars and cents.

“Today, with Hip Hop earning its place atop the hierarchy of pop culture, the genre has become a corporate culture,” Julian Mitchell, an award-winning content marketer and editorial director for Sean Combs’s Revolt Media & TV, wrote in a blog for the Huffington Post. “Rap now magnifies what sells, at the expense of abandoning the core principles that preserve the Hip Hop as a pillar of inspiration, guidance and social justice. The private components that once made it a coveted art form now have a public price tag.”

It’s a price tag that was, unfortunately, well within the budget for mainstream media and cultural appropriators who are now tirelessly working to obliterate what hip hop once was.

“Because Hip Hop is in such high demand, talent is being bought up by the bulk, inevitably cheapening the value,” Mitchell continued. “The painful result is an all-powerful art form now oversaturated with seasonal trends, empty messages and no clear vision for where it desires to take the millions following.”

While today’s artists themselves share quite a bit of responsibility for compromising their voice in the midst of their “pursuit of money and status, driven by ego” there are also those unseen forces at work that have created a perception of hip hop that is one-dimensional and completely shallow.

In an industry where female rappers are rarely allowed to cross from the indie scene to the mainstream stage, it may be less than a coincidence that Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea, both very hypersexualized depictions of women, are being promoted as the face of female voices in the genre.

For those who insist this is merely driven by what listeners are into, Iggy Azalea’s album sales have never been particularly impressive and her relevancy so far seems to be limited to online streaming and pop culture tabloids.

But while social media feuds and clever diss tracks seem to be the majority of mainstream’s coverage of hip hop, the voices that once dominated the genre have been pushed into the background and seemingly forgotten.

White musicians from the same era, however, have maintained pop culture relevancy as classic rock stars and pop icons regardless of whether or not they had the credentials to support those claims.

This is exactly what has caused “forgettable white ‘classic rock’ acts like Steely Dan and the Eagles to pack stadiums” while “some of the biggest names in rap history are forced to slum it in clubs,” The Daily Beast contributor Stereo Williams writes.

Just as corporate powers allowed superficial rap to dominate the once powerful genre, they have also contributed to hip hop legends becoming distant memories.

“In 2013, hip-hop luminaries LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and De La Soul hit the road together for the ‘Kings of the Mic’ tour,” Williams wrote. “…When these icons of classic hip-hop hit the road, they were booked into venus like the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan, The Fox Theater in Atlanta, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. These are respectable amphitheaters, but a far cry from 20,000-seaters like The Garden.”

He also lists other troubling facts including Nas never gracing the cover of Rolling Stone and the fact that VIBE and XXL have been pushed out of the print business.

“Without the sort of media onslaught that accompanied rock’s second generation as it moved into middle age, classic hip-hop’s biggest names have been reduced to just ‘old-school rappers’ who used to be hot in the ancient times—that sepia toned yesteryear before Jay Z was turning dope tales into dollars,” Williams explained. “For all the conversation about hip-hop’s ascendance and status as the dominant musical and cultural influence of young people over the last 25 years, it’s still disseminated in a way that conveys a disregard of its artistic legacy—and thus, hip-hop’s elders are not being perceived in a way that properly recognizes their respective artistic genius.”

Classic hip hop radio stations have only recently started to emerge while the radio industry has dedicated stations to classic rock for years.

So-called rock legends are not still at the forefront of America’s minds because they were greater than the hip hop icons of the past. They are there because they still cover today’s popular magazines, appear throughout mainstream media and are discussed by entertainment’s elite—luxuries that are not extended to classic hip hop stars.

Williams insists that “until hip-hop media and pop culture decide that this music matters” hip hop will never be elevated the way it should be, its iconic voices will never reemerge and attempts to convince the new wave of hip hop stars to ditch their pursuit of fame and wealth in exchange for a pursuit of purpose will be useless.

Even though hip hop is still one of the most powerful genres in music, it is being suffocated in a capitalist society where money rules all.

For that reason, all eyes are on the few exceptions to the rule.

The Kendrick Lamars and J. Coles of the rap game will be watched closely as their conscious flows, incredible stories of humility, bold attempts to take on controversial subject matter like racism and cultural appropriation and public displays of concern for their communities continue to squeeze their way into mainstream discussions of entertainment.

“In the midst of these projected possibilities, one thing is certain,” Mitchell says. “The power of Hip Hop is immense and unwavering. But, how the art form is used from this point forward will determine the type of power we truly want to have.”

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/hip-hop-legends-shunned-mainstream-media-corporate-greed-steps-new-king-rap-game/feed/3Seattle Police Launch YouTube Channel to Show Bodycam Videos In Midst of Justice Dept. Monitoring for Racially Biased Policinghttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/seattle-police-launch-youtube-channel-to-show-bodycam-videos-in-midst-of-justice-dept-monitoring-for-racially-biased-policing/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/seattle-police-launch-youtube-channel-to-show-bodycam-videos-in-midst-of-justice-dept-monitoring-for-racially-biased-policing/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 20:00:23 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232110It may sound like a version of the TV show “Cops,” but the Seattle Police Department has started a YouTube channel to show the dashcam and body cam videos of officers on the job, in an effort to increase transparency.

Seattle Police, who began wearing body cameras late last year, have been one of the early adopters of the movement to equip officers with body cams, following the outrage across the country over the police killings of unarmed Black men.

“The goal here is to balance transparency with protecting the privacy of citizens, who might be scooped up, swept up, onto the video just by being in the vicinity,” police spokesman Drew Fowler said.

The channel is called SPD BodyWornVideo and it will feature videos scrubbed of sound and with the faces of civilians blurred to protect their privacy. The channel launched with about a dozen videos of the same event, a protest on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 19. And from a critic’s standpoint, they all are incredibly boring and not easy to follow because of the nearly opaque, grainy cinematography.

It should be noted that the Seattle Police Department hasn’t exactly been a vision of openness and warmth in its dealings with the public. The department is currently working under a consent decree with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington’s western district after they a found a pattern or practice of excessive force in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal law. The investigation also raised serious concerns that the department was engaged in racially discriminatory or biased policing in its encounters with the Black community.

Under the agreement, which the city entered into reluctantly in July 2012 after disagreeing with the findings—but wanting to avoid a Justice Department lawsuit—the department is overseen by a monitor, Merrick Bobb. Bobb’s job is to ensure that the department is properly implementing reforms that include adoption of policies and training to eliminate discriminatory policing, and the development of improved relations, trust and support among and from all of Seattle’s many and varied communities.

Last month, Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole was forced to issue an apology after an officer wrongfully arrested an elderly Black man after claiming the man swung a golf club at her. But video of the incident clearly showed the man leaning on the club for support and not lifting it toward the officer.

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http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/seattle-police-launch-youtube-channel-to-show-bodycam-videos-in-midst-of-justice-dept-monitoring-for-racially-biased-policing/feed/2Controversy Over GA State Rep Wanting to ‘Slap’ Stacey Dash Pits Liberals Against Conservatives In a Pointless Twitter Warhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/controversy-ga-state-rep-wanting-slap-stacey-dash-pits-liberals-conservatives-pointless-twitter-war/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/controversy-ga-state-rep-wanting-slap-stacey-dash-pits-liberals-conservatives-pointless-twitter-war/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 19:00:38 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232101Democratic Georgia state representative Dar’shun Kendrick found herself in the midst of controversy on social media after she sent out a tweet saying she wanted to “slap” Stacey Dash for the comments she made about Patricia Arquette’s Oscar speech.

It was yet another Twitter fiasco that suggests politicians simply shouldn’t use social media for their own personal thoughts or conversations. Most of these viral feuds and nasty digital exchanges don’t accomplish much more than take the public’s attention away from actual politics and allow one side of the political landscape to make unfair sweeping generalizations about the other.

This was no exception.

The feud all started when the openly conservative Black actress and Fox contributor said she was “appalled” by Arquette’s Oscar speech that pushed for equal rights for women.

When Dash criticized the speech on air, Kendrick took to social media to express her feelings.

“I’m going to slap Stacey Dash if I see her…that wasn’t nice,” she wrote on Facebook. “Forgive me God. I’m going to pray she stops talking..ok. That’s better.”

It wasn’t long before Dash spotted the post and shared it on her own Twitter account.

“WOW #GA State Rep @DarshunKendrick wants to ‘slap me’ until I ‘stop talking’ Such a role model for young black women,” Dash tweeted along with a screenshot of the post.

Kendrick responded by claiming she recanted the statement and also took a serious jab at Dash’s reading skills.

“@REALStaceyDash You’ll notice that I recanted that statement,” she tweeted. “Reading is fundamental.”

Kendrick never issued a separate apology or recanted the statement online but merely suggested that the part of the post that reads “…that wasn’t nice. Forgive me God,” was considered her recanting the proposed slap.

She eventually deleted the original Facebook post.

Social media was immediately set ablaze after images of the feud were shared online, with many of Dash’s supporters claiming that the Georgia rep was condoning violence and unfairly attacked the actress because she was a Black conservative.

Kendrick’s supporters suggested that the post was taken too seriously while also insisting that it was a reasonable response to Dash’s comments about Arquette’s speech.

While Arquette’s speech was a public push for equality for women, Dash insisted on Monday’s Fox & Friends that the Oscar winner was out of line.

“First of all, Patricia Arquette needs to do her history,” Dash said. “In 1963, [President] Kennedy passed an equal pay wall. It’s still in effect. I didn’t get the memo that I didn’t have any rights.”

Arquette’s speech never suggested that women had no rights.

“To every woman who gave birth, to every citizen who has paid taxes…this is our time to have wage equality and equal rights for women,” she said as she accepted the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

As for the social media war between the two ladies, Kendrick took a few more jabs are Dash’s literacy before she stopped posting about the controversy.

Supporters for both Kendrick and Dash have continued hurling tweets back and forth at one another in a debate that quickly shifted away from the two women and instead turned into a stereotype-filled quarrel that pitted liberals against conservatives.

One tweet mocked the entire Black Lives Matter movement by suggesting Kendrick would be chanting “hands up don’t shoot after she slaps” Dash. Another tweet unfairly slammed all conservative women as “ignorant” people who want the “government to regulate [their] ovaries.”

In a social media battle that all started over comments pushing for wage equality, the conversation, not surprisingly, never added any substance to the bigger conversation at hand.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/controversy-ga-state-rep-wanting-slap-stacey-dash-pits-liberals-conservatives-pointless-twitter-war/feed/2Dori Maynard’s Tireless Work For Diversity in Journalism Does Not End With Her Deathhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/dori-maynards-tireless-work-diversity-journalism-not-end-death/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/dori-maynards-tireless-work-diversity-journalism-not-end-death/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 18:15:33 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232109The morning Dori Maynard died, creating a sizable gash in the fight for balanced journalism, the esteemed advocate for fairness in the media “was holding meetings” about the profession to which she committed her entire life.

That’s what NPR’s Sam Sanders said. And whether it was hyperbole or a fact, the point was not compromised: Dori Maynard, 56, lived and breathed diversity in journalism to the moment of her death on Tuesday.

She endured a long battle with cancer; her fight for fair and balanced coverage and Black people in the nation’s newsrooms was much longer and surely taxing.

Maynard had one ultimate ambition: “We have to be able to tell stories that accurately and fairly reflect all of us,” she once said.

In that quest, she relentlessly pressured editors, mentored young African-American journalists, recommended jobs, trained journalists of all races and, since 2001, directed one of the finest training grounds for journalists, the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Yes, journalism ran through her veins. Her father, after which the institute was named, was the editor and publisher of The Oakland Tribune, and owed a controlling interest in the paper that held the distinction of being the country’s first Black-owned major metro daily until it was sold in the early 1990s.

Her dad’s influence was readily apparent. A soft-spoken woman, she still was determined and able to, year-after-year, stress to outlets and journalists that it was critical that the responsibility be met to provide nuanced coverage of communities that are often misrepresented by Caucasian media.

Maynard told NPR: “We sent some people once to a neighborhood that had a lot of immigrants in it. And we asked the reporters to ask community members, ‘How can people better cover you?’ And the community members said, ‘Well, you can stop looking at us from your middle-class point of view and stop calling us poor. You see two families living in one house and sharing a car, and so you think that’s poor. And we say, ‘We have a house. We have a car. We’re not poor.’”

Mainstream newspapers began hiring Black journalists out of necessity in the late 1960s, as African-Americans fumed over racial injustices and largely would not talk to white media.

“It was white journalists who reported on the civil rights movement (except for those reporters from the Black press),” Maynard recalled, “while it was mainly Black reporters who covered this other era—Black Power, Black consciousness, and the Black revolution. In fact, this became the only time that mainstream media put an important story entirely in the hands of Black reporters. That was a decision borne from necessity. With cries of ‘white reporter out,’ Black journalists were the only ones who were able to get the story.”

As NPR noted, Maynard helped start a program at the institute that pushed journalists to recognize blind spots in their coverage across five distinct areas—race, class, gender, generation and geography.

African-Americans still make up just 12 percent of reporters in the nation’s newsrooms, the clearest indication that Dori Maynard’s work must go on. It just will not be the same without her.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/dori-maynards-tireless-work-diversity-journalism-not-end-death/feed/1Magic Johnson Donates $10 Million to Chicago Program That Directs Troubled Black Youth Away From Street Violencehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/magic-johnson-donates-10-million-chicago-program-directs-troubled-black-youth-away-street-violence/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/magic-johnson-donates-10-million-chicago-program-directs-troubled-black-youth-away-street-violence/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 17:30:32 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232092In Michael Jordan’s city, Magic Johnson has donated $10 million to bolster a summer jobs program that benefits troubled Black youths in Chicago, which has been ravaged by street violence.

Johnson joined Mark and Kimbra Walter of the Inner City Youth Empowerment in a collaboration that will help triple the reach of the One Chicago Summer Plus program.

Its primary focus is to guide youths ages 16 to 19 away from potential troubles that come on the streets of inner-city Chicago.

“We are proud to partner on an initiative that has proven to change the trajectory of at-risk kids’ lives,”Johnson said in a press release. “Providing disadvantaged kids with alternatives is a step in the right direction toward helping them reach their full potential and curb violence in our neighborhoods.”

Johnson’s contribution highlights the former NBA great’s philanthropic work since retiring from professional basketball. He’s been a benchmark for other athletes, like Jordan, to study after their careers are completed.

Johnson’s business enterprises are extensive, and most of them have elements of providing jobs, upward mobility and upgraded services for African-Americans.

Hardly anyone talks about Johnson having contracted HIV in 1991, setting in motion the end of one of the sport’s great careers. Since then, Johnson has been recognized as an advocate for the disease and an entrepreneur with an amazing portfolio. He’s also part of a group that owns the Los Angeles Dodgers and has a net worth estimated at $500 million, according to celebritynetworth.com.

He was beloved as a player because of the infectious, child-like joy in which he performed but should be admired for the non-stop work he does in Black communities. In the case of Chicago, Johnson has no real connection—he’s from Lansing, Mich. and has lived in Los Angeles ever since he was drafted No. 1 by the Lakers in 1979.

The only connection is that Johnson identified a dire need and did something to help. Admirable.

This program in Chicago that served 1,000 teenagers will serve 3,000 now. The program includes a 25-hour-a-week summer job, a mentor and a behavioral therapy and social-skills building component.

The One Chicago Summer Plus program outlines criteria for students, as it targets those who have a past with the juvenile justice system and those who have missed six to eight weeks of school.

The program spends roughly $2,900 per student, which equates to nearly triple the amount that is traditionally spent on summer job programs.

The city of Chicago is also contributing an additional $6 million to the program, with some of the funds going toward training and supporting 500 mentors so that the increase in students into the program does not compromise the quality and personal contact participants receive.

“The city of Chicago, with the support of our community and business partners, remains committed to reducing violence in our city,”Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in Black Enterprise. “Through the generous grant, more youth will stay safe, active and engaged this summer while getting the skills and on-the-job training necessary for a bright future.”

High unemployment is directly linked to higher incarceration rates. Studies indicate 92 percent of Black males between the ages of 16-19 in Chicago are unemployed, which impacts the city’s high crime and incarceration rates. All this illuminates how important programs like this are—and how committed someone like Magic Johnson is.

U.S. trade officials inked an agreement on Thursday aimed at increasing trade and investment with five East African nations while boosting the economic relationship across the continent.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the deal will ramp up the U.S. partnership with the East African Community (EAC), which includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, while reaching deeper into Africa to improve trade.

“Today’s agreement is an important milestone for deepening what has already proven itself to be a promising and impactful partnership,” Froman said.
“This agreement will help us lift the burdens that trade barriers impose, unlocking opportunity on both our continents.”

Thursday’s deal will help the African nations further streamline the customs process, meet global standards on food protections and reduce other technical barriers to trade.

It also establishes a new five-year, $64 million trade and investment hub in East Africa focused on broadly increasing exports under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), while expanding and diversifying regional agricultural trade and food security.

During a summer 2013 trip to Africa, President Obama announced the Trade Africa initiative to promote U.S.-Africa trade and investment, with the starting point in East Africa.

With strides made there, the Obama administration wants to deepen that relationship by knocking down additional trade barriers in the region while expanding the U.S. reach to other African nations.

“We see this agreement and all our work with the EAC to date as an important steppingstone, not the final destination,” Froman said.

Successes in the region, Froman said, include a significant reduction — to six days from 21 — in container transit times from Mombasa, the biggest port in the region, to Kigali, Rwanda.

That helped boost trade to $4.7 billion in 2013 within the five-nation bloc, up from $2.3 billion in 2005.

Trades of goods between the United States and the five countries totaled $2.8 billion in 2014, the USTR said.

“Together, we can tackle more tasks, support more jobs, and unlock more opportunities for the American and African people alike,” Froman said.

The new EAC strategy also started a new commercial dialogue to develop public-private initiatives to further bolster trade.

“The global economy is evolving and the U.S.-Africa economic relationship must evolve, too,” he said.

The move comes as the Obama administration and Congress are discussing a renewal and modernization of AGOA, which expires in September.

“Prompt renewal is critical because many businesses plan their orders six, even 12 months in advance, and waiting until the 11th hour to renew AGOA will result in jobs lost, factories closed, and investment deferred, all of which undermine our goal for a stronger U.S.-Africa economic relationship,” Froman said.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/us-officials-sign-new-deal-hopes-boost-trade-africa/feed/1If There Was Ever a Malcolm X Speech That Spoke to What’s Missing In The Current Black Struggle Movement, This One Is Ithttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/if-there-was-ever-a-malcolm-x-speech-that-spoke-to-whats-missing-in-the-current-black-struggle-movement-this-one-is-it/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/if-there-was-ever-a-malcolm-x-speech-that-spoke-to-whats-missing-in-the-current-black-struggle-movement-this-one-is-it/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 16:44:02 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=231694Video by Oxford University
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/if-there-was-ever-a-malcolm-x-speech-that-spoke-to-whats-missing-in-the-current-black-struggle-movement-this-one-is-it/feed/6Cigar Makers Expect to Make Big Bucks From US Travelers Amid New US-Cuba Relationshttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/cigar-makers-expect-make-big-bucks-us-travelers-amid-new-us-cuba-relations/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/cigar-makers-expect-make-big-bucks-us-travelers-amid-new-us-cuba-relations/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 16:00:00 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232060Over six decades rolling premium cigars with his small, wrinkled hands, Arnaldo Alfonso has taken pride in seeing his “habanos” sampled by visiting heads of state and other dignitaries.

Now he’s delighted by the idea of customers lighting them up in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere in the United States, where Cuban cigars have been outlawed since the U.S. embargo took effect in 1962.

“It’s a very beautiful thought,” said a smiling Alfonso, a 78-year-old worker in the tobacco shop of the Palco Hotel in western Havana.

Cuban cigar makers are licking their chops over new U.S. rules, announced in December as part of a partial detente, allowing more Americans to travel to the island and legally bring back small quantities of the coveted stogies for the first time in decades.

As Havana celebrated the annual Cigar Festival that wraps up with a gala-dinner bash Friday, officials said that this year alone they expect to double on-island sales of hand-rolled cigars, known here as “habanos,” from 3 million to 6 million.

“This is an important jump in just one year,” said Jorge Luis Fernandez Maique, vice president of Habanos SA, a mixed venture between Cuba’s state-run Cubatabaco and the British company Altadis. “It’s a boom for the Cuban market.”

The additional sales would represent a modest increase to the company’s overall annual production of around 90 million to 100 million premium units to meet domestic and international demand, primarily in Europe and China.

But officials see it as just the tip of the cigar: If the U.S. embargo were to fall amid a normalization of diplomatic relations, Habanos believes it could capture nearly a third of the American market, the world’s largest for cigars.

Almost 600,000 visitors traveled to the island from the United States last year, a figure that includes mostly Cuban-Americans on family visits but also tens of thousands of people on legal educational and religious exchanges. The number is expected to rise, though it’s still unclear by how much.

Many visit shops like the one where Alfonso works.

“They are aware that these are first-rate cigars,” said Teresita Diaz, a saleswoman at the store.

Under the new rules, U.S. travelers are now allowed to bring back up to $100 in combined tobacco and alcohol products, a lot less than the $3,000 to $4,000 sales that Diaz can ring up for some of the Canadian, European and Chinese aficionados who shop there.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/cigar-makers-expect-make-big-bucks-us-travelers-amid-new-us-cuba-relations/feed/0Louisiana Plantation Starts a New Historic Chapter as the Nation’s First Slavery Museumhttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/louisiana-plantation-starts-new-historic-chapter-nations-first-slavery-museum/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/louisiana-plantation-starts-new-historic-chapter-nations-first-slavery-museum/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 15:15:34 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=231991It has been 150 years since the Civil War ended and yet the American government still has failed to fund a museum dedicated purely to the history of slavery in the nation. Where the government fell short, however, the wealthy descendant of Irish laborers has stepped up and thus marked the beginning of a rather unusual story behind the country’s first slavery museum.

The United States has erected countless museums and memorials without ever creating a space dedicated to the atrocities of slavery that remain at the very foundation of America.

While federal funding was relatively easy to obtain in order to bring projects memorializing the Holocaust to fruition, the same can’t be said about multiple attempts to create a museum that would bring some attention back to America’s own dark past.

That was the unusual and unfathomable reality that drove John Cummings to spend 15 years and more than $8 million of his own money in order to make the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana more than just a historical relic.

In the town of Wallace, roughly 35 miles west of New Orleans, the Whitney Plantation received a warm welcoming as it opened its doors to the public on Dec. 7, The New York Times reported.

The plantation has not only been restored, but the property has been transformed into a space that is both architecturally stunning and of vast educational importance.

An exhibit on the North American slave trade has been added to the property and rests inside the new visitor’s center.

Just outside, however, history remains intact.

Seven cabins that once served as homes for the enslaved Black people are still standing along a dusty path and the massive iron kettles that were once used to boil sugar cane give visitors a glimpse into the labor intensive days that enslaved people spent on the property.

Even a jail that was used in the past to punish enslaved people was restored and now stands as a symbol of the fact that slavery was about more than grueling hours on a plantation.

It reminds visitors of the sheer depths of slavery that involve inhumane treatment and deplorable living conditions that physically and emotionally tormented generation after generation of enslaved Black people.

This plantation turned museum is one of the only projects dedicated solely to forcing America to confront the vile, twisted history that allowed it to become one of the most prosperous economic powers in the world.

The project itself has a visual appeal that has been praised by architects, and the elements of American history and slavery that have been captured left historians in awe as they made their way through the grounds.

What was the most stunning surprise, however, came in the form of an older white gentleman who was responsible for bringing the project to life.

John Cummings (right), the Whitney Plantation’s owner, and Ibrahima Seck, its director of research, in the Baptist church on the grounds. Credit Mark Peckmezian for The New York Times

“Like everyone else, you’re probably wondering what the rich white boy has been up to out here,” John Cummings said as he addressed the crowd that attended the museum’s opening, according to The New York Times.

It’s indeed an unusual story, but Cummings insists the explanation behind him building America’s first museum dedicated to slavery is simple.

“I suppose it is a suspicious thing, what I’ve gone and done with the joint,” he added, addressing his decision to “spend millions I have no interest in getting back” to create the museum and restore the plantation. “I’ve been asked all the questions. About white guilt this and that. About the honky trying to profit off slavery. But here’s the thing: Don’t you think the story of slavery is important?”

He paused for the crowd to answer before he continued on.

“Well, I checked into it, and I heard you weren’t telling it,” he added. “So I figured I might as well get started.”

And so he did.

But there was a moment when his own plans for the property would have been squandered at the hands of corporate greed.

A plastics and petrochemical company called Formosa was the previous owner of the property and had very different plans for it.

Formosa planned to build a $700 million plant for manufacturing rayon back in 1991.

The plans were brought to a halt, however, when preservationists and environmentalists refused to let the project move forward.

Once rayon went out of style, Formosa lost interest in the project and put the property back up on the market.

That’s when Cummings seized the opportunity to create America’s first slavery museum.

While other museums in the country feature civil rights leaders and dedicate small portions of the exhibits to slavery, this will be the first property specifically tailored toward bringing America’s history of slavery to light in a way that the general public can experience.

Ever since embarking on the massive project, Cummings had surrounded himself in literature about slavery’s history so he could become even more educated on the subject matter he hoped to teach others about.

He is also refusing to let accusations of “white guilt” deter him from his work.

“I started to see slavery and the hangover from slavery everywhere I looked,” he said, according to The New York Times. “If ‘guilt’ is the best word to use, then yes, I feel guilt. I mean you start understanding that the wealth of this part of the world — wealth that has benefited me — was created by some half a million black people who just passed us by. How is it that we don’t acknowledge this?”

All throughout the property there are monuments, beautifully crafted sculptures and other features that Cummings also funded through his wealth.

Many of them are visually appealing pieces with emotionally charged messages, including a sculpture of a Black angel embracing a dead infant.

Others are unconventional ways to highlight the bloody stains of slavery.

Cummings says families will have the option to bypass a memorial in the works that would honor the victims of the German Coast Uprising.

It’s an event that is rarely discussed in American history, New York Times writer David Amsden explains.

“In January 1811, at least 125 slaves walked off their plantations and, dressed in makeshift military garb, began marching in revolt along River Road toward New Orleans,” Amsden reported. “The area was then called the German Coast for the high number of German immigrants, like the Haydels. The slaves were suppressed by militias after two days, with about 95 killed, some during fighting and some after the show trials that followed.”

Cummings’ monument would replicate the decapitated heads that were placed on stakes along River Road to deter other enslaved Black people from revolting.

“It’ll be optional, OK? Not for the kids,” Cummings added.

As his project grew in effort and size over the years, he brought on a Senegalese scholar by the name of Ibrahima Seck in 2012 to serve as the director of the Whitney Plantation.

Seck, 54, serves as the more rational side of the balanced partnership who is frequently engulfed in research while Cummings continues to follow his instinctive nature and make massive spur-of-the-moment purchases that he believes could be connected to the history of slavery in America.

One of those purchases includes an old Baptist church in a neighboring parish that was previously owned by freed enslaved people back in 1867. Cummings paid to have the property moved across the Mississippi so he could restore it.

The project cost him more than $300,000.

For those who have questioned his decision to dedicate the massive amounts of money, land and resources to a more “disturbing” part of America’s history, Cummings believes it’s the only logical approach to the situation.

“It is disturbing,” he said of the decapitated head memorial that is near completion and the other remnants of a dark past that fill the property. “But you know what else is? It happened. It happened right here on this road.”

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/louisiana-plantation-starts-new-historic-chapter-nations-first-slavery-museum/feed/3Ta-Nehisi Coates Completely Shuts Down Shelby Steele In Epic Fashion In This Reparations Debatehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/ta-nehisi-coates-completely-shuts-down-shelby-steele-in-this-reparations-debate-in-epic-fashion/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/ta-nehisi-coates-completely-shuts-down-shelby-steele-in-this-reparations-debate-in-epic-fashion/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 15:14:44 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=231959Video by ABC
]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/ta-nehisi-coates-completely-shuts-down-shelby-steele-in-this-reparations-debate-in-epic-fashion/feed/72Climate Change Most Severely Hurts Black People in US and Around the World, Even If Republicans Still Deny Its Existencehttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/climate-change-most-severely-hurts-black-people-in-us-and-around-the-world-even-if-republicans-still-deny-its-existence/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/climate-change-most-severely-hurts-black-people-in-us-and-around-the-world-even-if-republicans-still-deny-its-existence/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 14:30:12 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=232057While a majority of Republicans in a poll released this week said that climate change doesn’t exist, recent surveys of American doctors indicate that not only does climate change exist, but Black people in the U.S. are among those most likely to be hurt by this change in weather patterns.

In addition, studies have shown that Black people and poor people around the globe are being most severely hurt by the phenomenon.

It is a remarkable divergence of the public perception of Republicans and the actual experience of experts and medical professionals. But it raises the question of how difficult it will be for the nation to make any moves to prepare Americans for the increasing severity of climate change—in addition to continuing to try to reduce the heat-trapping CO2 emissions that bring about climate change— if a majority of the members of the party that controls Congress doesn’t even think the phenomenon is real.

The world is in agreement that the U.S. is by far the nation most responsible for emitting the most CO2, yet the poll released earlier this week of Republican primary voters by Public Policy Polling found that 66 percent of them still don’t believe in global warming’s existence.

A new survey taken of the members of the American Thoracic Society—doctors who specialize in the heart, lungs, esophagus, and other organs in the chest—found that 77 percent of the respondents reported that increases in air pollution due to climate change are worsening the severity of illnesses in their patients, and they expect these health impacts will further increase in the future. They are most commonly seeing increases in chronic disease severity from air pollution (77 percent), allergic symptoms from exposure to plants or mold (58 percent), and severe weather injuries (57 percent).

A group of doctors from the American Thoracic Society has been lobbying members of Congress this week to educate them about the results of this survey.

Another survey specifically taken of African-American doctors released in November found that a large majority of the physicians said certain groups of people will be disproportionately affected by climate change, based on what they have been seeing in their patients. They said the most affected groups are people with chronic diseases (88 percent), people living near or below the poverty line (86 percent), young children ages 0–4 (83 percent), adults over age 60 (80 percent), and people of color (73 percent).

As this survey pointed out, African-American doctors tend to have a much higher percentage of African-American patients than other doctors do.

Climate change can cause severe respiratory problems due to poor air quality, health problems caused by heat events and injuries attributable to extreme weather. In addition, the spread of food-borne, vector-borne and waterborne diseases, and harms to mental health are additional likely by-products of climate change.

This outsized impact of climate change on poor people and Black people certainly isn’t limited to the U.S. Climate change is a global phenomenon and its negative impacts are more severely felt by poor people and poor countries around the world, according to a report called “Poverty and Climate Change: Reducing the Vulnerability of the Poor through Adaptation,” prepared by a consortium of entities including the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the African Development Bank Group. They are more vulnerable because of their high dependence on natural resources, and their limited capacity to cope with climate variability and extremes.

Many studies have shown that it is the actions of the developed world, particularly the United States, that has put the world on the precipice of disaster from the CO2 emissions that remain trapped in the air for hundreds of years. The U.S. has put the biggest cumulative portion of CO2 into the air, while the UK on a per capita basis is responsible for the biggest portion of cumulative CO2—mainly because the industrial revolution began in the UK in the early 1800s, so they have been at it the longest, kicking the thing off by burning enormous amounts of coal to power industry.

After the U.S. and the UK, Germany is a close third in terms of responsibility.

Do you see a pattern here?

While it is the majority white nations and multinational conglomerates of the developed world most responsible for CO2 emissions, enjoying the spoils of their excessive lifestyles and conspicuous consumption, it is the poor, the developing nations, Black people and other people of color, who will most severely bear the brunt of these first world excesses.

That may turn out to be the most significant story of the 21st century.

The Pell Grant, which had served as a financial lifeblood to many students at historically Black colleges and universities for decades, was limited in 2011 by the federal government to use for only 12 semesters. Prior to then, it was available for 18 semesters. The change was almost crippling to HBCU students who, on average, take longer to complete requirements for graduation. Only one-third of HBCU students graduate in four years, according to studies. And so, Black colleges lost significant tuition revenue because students could not afford to stay in school. Marybeth Gasman, a professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania, said to insiderhighered.com that almost 85 percent of HBCU students receive Pell Grants, making the decrease in its availability significant.

Loan Modifications

Parent PLUS loans, another often-used, government-based vehicle that HBCU students used to get and stay in school, also have been limited since 2011, a huge blow to predominantly Black schools. Low graduation rates impact available money, meaning countless schools have been affected because of so many dropouts for financial reasons. This situation has been considered a “crisis” by educators who closely monitor historically Black colleges. “It could be a bloodbath,” said Johnny C. Taylor Jr., the president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Paying back loans on time opens the doors to other students receiving loans. But the rate of payback among HBCU students is too low, making it hard for students coming behind them to receive that financial assistance.

]]>http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/7-reasons-why-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-are-suffering/feed/1Surprise, Suprise: Study Shows What Black People Already Know; White Privilege Exists Well Beyond America’s Bordershttp://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/surprise-suprise-study-shows-black-people-aready-know-white-privilege-exists-australia/
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/27/surprise-suprise-study-shows-black-people-aready-know-white-privilege-exists-australia/#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 13:45:56 +0000http://atlantablackstar.com/?p=231987It is hardly a revelation to Black people by any stretch, but two Australian economists released the findings of a study that indicated that white people are treated more favorably than African-Americans — even Down Under.

Economists Redzo Mujcic and Paul Frijters at the University of Queensland went through the trouble of studying how authorities treat whites and Blacks by how bus drivers reacted to passengers without fares.

They trained and assigned 29 young adult testers from both genders and races to board public buses in Brisbane and insert an empty fare card into the bus scanner.

The scanner would inform the driver via an alarm that the card did not have enough value. The testers were instructed to tell the driver, “I do not have any money, but I need to get to” a station about 1.2 miles away. The station varied according to where the testers boarded.

They did this more than 1,500 times, and the study uncovered substantial, statistically significant racial discrimination—discrimination that would surprise few Black people.

Additionally, the study found that racial disparities were evident based on appearances. When testers wore business attire or dressed in army uniforms, the treatment varied. For example, testers wearing army uniforms were allowed to ride free 97 percent of the time if they were white, but only 77 percent of the time if they were Black.

A New York Times reporter noted that a British friend traveling on Amtrak said the conductor would not seek tickets from white passengers, but did from African-American or Hispanic travelers.

When the person told the conductor that he noticed his partial treatment, he was told to “mind his business,” according to the Times.

This kind of racial bias is prevalent all day, every day for Blacks, making the study interesting but not revealing.

“Discriminatory gifts are more likely than discriminatory denials,” Yale Law professor Ian Ayers said to the newspaper.

“My kids, who are white, have never been turned down when I asked if they could use a bathroom designated for ‘employees only,’” Ayers admitted. “After reading the Australian bus study, I wonder whether the same is true for minority families.”

Ayers also noted that white privilege exists in everything from car buying, speeding tickets, etc., facts that offer no consolation to the Black people who are on the wrong side of the mistreatment.

The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore season 1, episode 20 airs tonight on Comedy Central.

The Emmy- and Peabody-winning comedian Larry Wilmore and a panel of guests discuss the current events and the world of pop culture.

The Nightly Show will provide viewers with Wilmore’s distinct point of view and comedic take on current events and pop culture. Hosted by Wilmore, the series will feature a diverse panel of voices, providing a perspective largely missing in the late-night television landscape.

The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore season 1, episode 20 airs Feb. 26 at 11:30 p.m. EST on Comedy Central.

The task force targets a serial killer who tracks his victims like prey. Meanwhile, suspicions rise about a possible murder as Liz tries to keep her secret from being exposed.

NBC describes the show as follows:

“For decades, ex-government agent Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington (James Spader, The Office,Boston Legal) has been one of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives. Brokering shadowy deals for criminals across the globe, Red was known by many as ‘The Concierge of Crime.’ Now, he’s mysteriously surrendered to the FBI with an explosive offer: He will help catch a long-thought-dead terrorist, Ranko Zamani, under the condition that he speaks only to Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Keen (Megan Boone, Law & Order: Los Angeles), an FBI profiler fresh out of Quantico. For Liz, it’s going to be one hell of a first day on the job. What follows is a twisting series of events as the race to stop a terrorist begins. What are Red’s true intentions? Why has he chosen Liz, a woman with whom he seemingly has no connection? Does Liz have secrets of her own? Zamani is only the first of many on a list that Red has compiled over the years: a ‘blacklist’ of politicians, mobsters, spies and international terrorists. He will help catch them all … with the caveat that Liz continues to work as his partner. Red will teach Liz to think like a criminal to ‘see the bigger picture’ – whether she wants to or not.”

At ISIS, an international spy agency, global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other. At the center of it all is suave master spy Sterling Archer, whose less-than-masculine code name is “Duchess.” Archer works with his domineering mother Malory, who also is his boss. He also has to deal with his ex-girlfriend, Agent Lana Kane, and her new boyfriend, ISIS comptroller Cyril Figgis, as well as Malory’s lovesick secretary, Cheryl.

How to Get Away With Murder season 1, episodes 14 and 15 air tonight on ABC.

In the two-part season 1 finale, Annalise defends a priest who’s accused of killing a colleague. Connor and Oliver explore a new level in their relationship, and Wes and Rebecca continue to lose faith in one another. In the second hour, Wes, Connor, Michaela and Laurel may be in too much trouble for Annalise to rescue them; and the truth about Lila’s murder is revealed.

The brilliant, charismatic and seductive Professor Annalise Keating gets entangled with four law students from her class How to GetAway With Murder. Little do they know that they will have to apply what they learned to real life, in this masterful, sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller.

How to Get Away With Murder season 1, episodes 14 and 15 air Feb. 26 at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.

Loretta Lynch took an enormous step toward becoming the nation’s first Black woman to serve as U.S. Attorney General when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted by a 12-8 margin to approve her nomination to replace Eric Holder.

Lynch, a proud, dignified woman who was born in Greensboro, NC, and has both undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard, will have her nomination moved to the floor of the full Senate as early as next week. If she gets the support of the entire Democratic contingent, she would need just four Republican votes for confirmation after the 2013 change in the Senate rules requiring a simple majority to stop a Republican filibuster.

That should be a fairly easy task, since she already got the nod from three Republicans —Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)—on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But some members of the GOP, such as Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), have said they would oppose Lynch as retaliation against the president for the executive action he took on immigration protecting up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Texas halted the president’s new program just as it was about to go into effect.

The political wrestling surrounding her nomination gives Lynch an early taste of what she has in store battling a Republican-controlled Congress. Her predecessor, Holder, was a despised enemy of Republicans on Capitol Hill—in many eyes because he showed no hesitancy in defying Republican demands. Congress even held Holder in contempt of Congress during Obama’s first term because he refused to hand over documents Republicans sought in the ATF gun-running scandal.

She takes over amidst an extremely tense racial atmosphere in the country. But as a U.S. Attorney in New York, Lynch is used to racial tinderboxes.

“I supported advancing Loretta Lynch’s nomination to the floor today because her record of service over several decades shows that she is well qualified to be attorney general,” Hatch said. “There is good reason to believe that Ms. Lynch will be more independent than the current attorney general and make strides toward recommitting the department to the rule of law.”

Hatch said that Lynch’s record “does not include anything sufficient to overcome the presumption in favor of confirmation.”

Senate Democrats were fuming that Lynch’s nomination has been pending for 110 days, which is longer than any other attorney general nominee in recent history, according to media reports.

“Political fights over immigration should not hold up Loretta Lynch, DHS funding or anything else,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D) from New York, where Lynch serves as U.S. Attorney. “But the hard right, upset over the president’s immigration policies, is grasping at straws to have a fight, any fight, over immigration. Loretta Lynch, a supremely qualified nominee for a vital national security and law enforcement post, should never have been pulled into the fray.”

But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) isn’t backing down, warning that the vote won’t be as smooth as the White House might like.

“The answers Ms. Lynch gave in this hearing room, in my judgment, render her unsuitable for the position of chief law enforcement official,” Cruz said.

Not since 1817 has a president promoted a United States attorney directly to attorney general. Lynch for six years was an associate at the New York law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel before becoming a federal prosecutor.

Amelia spotlights Dr. Herman’s upcoming surgery, which intrigues the staff. Meanwhile, Arizona and Dr. Herman grow closer as they work on completing other cases, and Bailey puts the case of a special pregnant woman on their radar.

A description of Grey’s Anatomy reads:

The doctors deal with life-or-death consequences on a daily basis – it’s in one another that they find comfort, friendship and, at times, more than friendship.

Here, they must learn to balance their personal lives with their highly competitive professional lives, all while dealing with the daily stress of life-and-death situations. Together, they’re discovering that neither medicine nor relationships can be defined in black and white. Real life only comes in shades of grey.

A mysterious wanderer arrives in Kattegat. Lagertha and Athelstan establish a Viking settlement.

Vikings transports us to the brutal and mysterious world of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), a Viking warrior and farmer who yearns to explore — and raid — the distant shores across the ocean. His ambition puts him at odds with local chieftain Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne), who insists on sending his raiders to the impoverished east rather than the uncharted west. When Ragnar teams up with his boat builder friend Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard) to craft a new generation of intrepid ships capable of conquering the rough northern seas, the stage is set for conflict. But for all its warfare and bloodshed, Vikings is also a story of family and brotherhood, capturing the love and affection between Ragnar and his wife, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), a respected warrior in her own right. It is the tale of Ragnar’s brother Rollo (Clive Standen), a fierce fighter who simmers with jealously; of Earl Haraldson’s wife Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig), a dutiful beauty who may be less than loyal; and of the monk Athelstan (George Blagden), whose Christian morals clash with the Vikings’ pagan society. As ambition and innovation rattle a civilization, these characters will be put to the test — and their way of life will never be the same again. Vikings was created and written by Michael Hirst (Elizabeth, The Tudors).

The rapper and business mogul, also known as Curtis Jackson, turns 40 on July 6. He has not released a solo CD lately, but he has recently reunited with G-Unit and has a new offering scheduled to be released next month. 50 also is the executive producer of and featured in the hot Showtime series, Power.

Andre 3000

The rapper and singer, who gained fame as a member of the hip-hop duo OutKast, turns the Big 4-0 on May 27. He and Big Boi reunited in the summer with a series of concerts that, ultimately, Andre 3000 did not feel so good about. “I felt weird about going out onstage and doing it again,” he said to Fader magazine. “I felt like people would be like, ‘Y’all are doing all these festivals; y’all are just doing it for money.’ And I felt like a sell-out, honestly.”